Believe in Diwali Without Firecrackers
India- land of multitudes of cultures, languages, festivals, relations, emotions, exotic locations, unlimited opportunities, these are few attributes among many, which make our stay here in this country a blissful experience. All pervasive unity in diversity of our country is what distinguishes us from the rest of the world.
We Indians believe in celebrations, which is a reason for all of us to be with our families, our loved ones to enjoy some of the most beautiful moments of our lives. Our traditional calendar starts from “Chaitra” and runs through 12 months and ends at “Falgun”. Though all 365 days are special for us, but chosen few clustered together give us what we call “festive season”, one of them is the period which starts from September and runs through October & November-- during which we celebrate Ganesha Chathurthi, Nav Durga, Durga Pooja, Dusshehra, Deepawali, Dhanteras etc.
Deepawali- festival of light, is one of much awaited festivals of our country. We wish our loved ones for their bright future, we lighten our lives, our places and drive away all traces of darkness from our places.Take a pause here for a moment and think --- Are we successful in doing so? Are we successful at purging all relics of real darkness from our lives? Do you think by just lighting only our lives & places, is going to drive away the tenebrous darkness that has gripped our society? Do we ever spare a moment thinking about those people whose life has not yet seen the real light of life? Are we successful at highlighting the dark cons of mankind by the light of our lives? Answers to these questions are worth contemplating....
Diwali for most of our kids conjures up an image of festival during which they get an opportunity to light crackers. Our conditioning has been like that. To get a feel, I asked few kids, what this festival means to them – “Day for lighting crackers” a common reply. Demand for firecrackers has skyrocketed in past few years entailing rising prices. People these days have to shell out anywhere around 1000-2000 bucks to get minuscule amount of firecrackers, and if they want to slake the real thirst of firing crackers leading to neighbors envy, they should be ready to shell out anywhere around 5000-10000 bucks.
Let us understand the pricing mechanism of these firecrackers. Manufacturers manage to get basic paraphernalia from vendors which have mushroomed across the country. These vendors normally make their cartel thereby making their supply prices fixed at some pre-decided level. Labor, which accounts for significant input for any product is the only way out for manufacturers to bring down their total costing. For this, they employ small destitute kids to work in their factories. Small kids, work for long hours during August, September and October as normally these crackers hit the markets by Dussehra only. They work with dangerous chemicals, soft skins of their hands are soiled with dangerous chemicals. They unfortunately are paid a measly amount for their incessant hard work. These innocent kids are exploited to their extreme to make our Diwali a celebration of firecrackers. Alas, for them, this is just an opportunity to earn a bread. We enjoy our diwali with sweets but these kids have to remain contended with the basic roti and dal, may be even worse and are left with nothing to purchase firecrackers to celebrate their dark Diwali. For them it’s just another day.
This diwali, let all of us pledge together to curtail our budget of firecrackers by half and continue doing so every every year. This way a time will come when there would be no budget, no scope for firecrackers and hence demand for firecrackers will die automatically from the market. Doing so, we would definitely be successful in lightening many small lives and then it would be apt for all of us to say: Diwali-A Festival of Light.
We Indians believe in celebrations, which is a reason for all of us to be with our families, our loved ones to enjoy some of the most beautiful moments of our lives. Our traditional calendar starts from “Chaitra” and runs through 12 months and ends at “Falgun”. Though all 365 days are special for us, but chosen few clustered together give us what we call “festive season”, one of them is the period which starts from September and runs through October & November-- during which we celebrate Ganesha Chathurthi, Nav Durga, Durga Pooja, Dusshehra, Deepawali, Dhanteras etc.
Deepawali- festival of light, is one of much awaited festivals of our country. We wish our loved ones for their bright future, we lighten our lives, our places and drive away all traces of darkness from our places.Take a pause here for a moment and think --- Are we successful in doing so? Are we successful at purging all relics of real darkness from our lives? Do you think by just lighting only our lives & places, is going to drive away the tenebrous darkness that has gripped our society? Do we ever spare a moment thinking about those people whose life has not yet seen the real light of life? Are we successful at highlighting the dark cons of mankind by the light of our lives? Answers to these questions are worth contemplating....
Diwali for most of our kids conjures up an image of festival during which they get an opportunity to light crackers. Our conditioning has been like that. To get a feel, I asked few kids, what this festival means to them – “Day for lighting crackers” a common reply. Demand for firecrackers has skyrocketed in past few years entailing rising prices. People these days have to shell out anywhere around 1000-2000 bucks to get minuscule amount of firecrackers, and if they want to slake the real thirst of firing crackers leading to neighbors envy, they should be ready to shell out anywhere around 5000-10000 bucks.
Let us understand the pricing mechanism of these firecrackers. Manufacturers manage to get basic paraphernalia from vendors which have mushroomed across the country. These vendors normally make their cartel thereby making their supply prices fixed at some pre-decided level. Labor, which accounts for significant input for any product is the only way out for manufacturers to bring down their total costing. For this, they employ small destitute kids to work in their factories. Small kids, work for long hours during August, September and October as normally these crackers hit the markets by Dussehra only. They work with dangerous chemicals, soft skins of their hands are soiled with dangerous chemicals. They unfortunately are paid a measly amount for their incessant hard work. These innocent kids are exploited to their extreme to make our Diwali a celebration of firecrackers. Alas, for them, this is just an opportunity to earn a bread. We enjoy our diwali with sweets but these kids have to remain contended with the basic roti and dal, may be even worse and are left with nothing to purchase firecrackers to celebrate their dark Diwali. For them it’s just another day.
This diwali, let all of us pledge together to curtail our budget of firecrackers by half and continue doing so every every year. This way a time will come when there would be no budget, no scope for firecrackers and hence demand for firecrackers will die automatically from the market. Doing so, we would definitely be successful in lightening many small lives and then it would be apt for all of us to say: Diwali-A Festival of Light.
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