Samyukta Shastri

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&quot;None are servants here... We are the
children of the earth. The fortunate children of the earth.&quot;And that’s from children singing in a village
school. At one level, the irony is palpable. Rural schools are almost never
given a fraction of the facilities, funding and opportunities that urban schools
receive. Schools that appoint ad hoc teachers at appallingly low salaries. Schools where the instructors are completely
unqualified – some states have exempted candidates from the Teachers’
Eligibility Test so they can bring in completely unqualified, underpaid people.
Schools that sometimes go without any teachers at all for ages.

Yet, they sang with passion and confidence,
the children of the primary school in Nandgaon village of Mulshi taluka in Pune district. They believe in
those ideals. And they’re singing, on our request, a Marathi poem they’ve
learned in school, from their fourth standard Bal Bharati textbook. 

It’s a poem by D. N. Gavankar (1915-1971),
poet and photographer, who was one of the members of the Lal Bavta Kala Pathak,
or the Red Flag Cultural Squad set up in 1942-44, along with Amar Shaikh and
Annabhau Sathe. The three were seen by their contemporaries and later writers
as “the bridge between the masses and the Samyukta Maharashtra movement.” (The
movement fought for and achieved a separate Marathi-speaking Maharashtra state
which came into being on May 1, 1960).In the 1940s, the songs and poems of these artists were very popular among the textile mill workers and other workers in Mumbai. Those words still ring in our ears, long after we’ve left: &quot;We will establish equality, everlasting unity... No one is inferior, none is a servant here.&quot;

Namita Waikar

‘We are the children of the earth’

‘এই পৃথিবীর বাচ্চা মোরা’

‘ଆମେ ପୃଥିବୀର ସନ୍ତାନ’

‘धरतीची आम्ही लेकरं’

‘हम बच्चे हैं इस धरती के’

’ہم بچے ہیں اس زمین کے‘

Nandgaon

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‘We are the children of the earth’

Students of the zilla parishad primary school in Nandgaon village in Pune district sing of equality and a freedom yet to be achieved in this country of 1.3 billion – a reminder for Children's Day, November 14

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