Celebrations are in full swing across the country as India celebrates 75 years of independence this year. Standing beside a footpath at Noida, a mother with a baby on her lap sits with national flags but not to mark Independence Day. She is trying to sustain another day by selling the flags to patriotic citizens of the country.
On being asked, her husband confesses that it is seasonal work for them to earn money. He will switch over to selling Holi colours soon. Deprived of food, he says that he only knows that this would fetch them food to survive, and people buy these flags and place them on the dashboards of their vehicles or in their terraces or balcony of their houses or simply wear them on their dresses.
Shackles of poverty are still not letting many young kids out there live a free life. “Is it not the biggest paradox in this country- destitute children, deprived of basic amenities, trying to make money by selling flags to others celebrating ‘independence’?”.
