> it shudn’t treated as an investment to ripe during the old age of the parents.
You think people give birth to kids for this reason?! On a lighter note, kaalam irukkara nelamaila yaarayum nambave mudiyadhu including your own kids. When that’s the case, you think someone would be foolish enough to give birth to a kid thinking that they will take care of them during their old age? If that’s happening, you won’t see so many old age homes cropping up everywhere everyday. But, this is a different issue altogether that I don’t want to talk about. I can’t hate enough all those who consider their parents to be burden and don’t take care of their parents in their old age!

> It shud be considered as an opportunity to contribute to the soceity
I don’t even know what to say for this!

> There are cases where parents dumping their babies in dustbins.
This is beyond the scope of my post

> Getting an education is a child’s right. If a parent can’t offer (or make ways to offer) it, then whats the point in giving birth?
Agreed it is a child’s right. But did you think why those parents are not able to provide education for their kids?

Daneel,
> Again, who are WE to decide that education is a child’s right
Like Ranjhith, I too ask why can’t we?

> Unfortunately, the poor guy finds out the truth too late, when the kid actually goes to school.
That’s so true.

Sami,
> Makkal manasula nermai poiduthu. That is the reason for all the things.
Exactly!

Ranjhith,
Why did you even start discussing about people dumping kids and the issues related to it here?

> Do you think any responsible parent would allow their kid to wear torn cloths?
For all you know, had the parents not been responsible, the child might not have got even those clothes to wear. Unfortunately, that’s the pathetic situation prevailing.

> All I wanted is that the parents shud to take care of their children well.
Agreed they should. But, when you keep talking about poor people and say that people shouldn’t give birth to kids when they can’t take care of them, we end up interpreting that you are indirectly saying that poor people shouldn’t give birth to kids if they can’t provide food/clothes/shelter to them. As I told you on that day itself, there are so many rich kids who end up as rich, spoilt brats due to their parents not bringing them up well. So, I guess as per you, even the parents of those kids should also not have given birth to them. If all the parents took good care of their kids and brought them up well, then this world won’t be the same place anymore.

Daneel,
> Our points seem orthogonal at this point.
Couldn’t agree more with this

Arvind,
Yeah population is indeed one of the major reasons why it is becoming difficult by the day to reduce the number of people below poverty line.

Ranjhith/Daneel,
Peace

Sreekrishnan,
>i see it as an ignorant smile …
Maybe yeah it’s ignorant smile all right.

>I seriously hate their parents for what they did to the child
>I would blame their parents for what they did !! … shame on them !!
This is the point that I don’t agree with completely. Agreed it’s the parents who should take good care of their child. But, the parents will try to provide their child with the best comfort that they can afford to give. No responsible parent would want to see their kids suffer and they will try to the best of their ability to ensure that it doesn’t happen. And yeah it’s not as though the parents don’t feel sad on seeing their kids in a state like this. The only thing for which I would say, you can blame the parents is if they don’t send their kids to school or if they are not working (to the best of their capability) and earning money for supporting their family.

>Why dont politicians ior actors or whoever can reach out to them let these parents know tha they make mistakes …
What mistake? Again the mistake that I would say the parents MIGHT be doing is either not sending their kids to school or not working hard enough to earn money for their family. The one thing that all those who can reach out to them can do is to make the parents understand the need to provide education to their children and also help them financially so that they can have provide proper food, shelter and also education for their child. Just imagine if the parents somehow struggle and provide education for their kids today, in some years the kids will give to their parents all the comforts that the parents were not able to give them. At the end of the day, the kid is not going to blame his/her parents for not providing decent home/clothes. On the contrary, you will have kids who make their parents proud by having reached a state in their life economically which their parents might not have imagined happening. I know this is all easier said than done. But, what’s the harm in hoping that it will happen someday?

Only if the Govt. properly implements all its schemes for the welfare of poor people and the selfish and corrupt Govt. officials stop thinking about the ways and means in which they can make more money by ‘stealing’ what’s not their money rightfully, will we be able to see a perceptible change in the lives of the poor!

Just to reiterate, my point is we should not decide/judge/opine if a person–regardless of one’s financial position– can have a child or not.
Your point seems to be that people who turn out to be irresponsible parents would have been better off not giving birth to children. Unfortunately, it can only be judged retrospectively, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Our points seem orthogonal at this point. If that’s indeed the case, we seem to neither agree nor disagree on nothing. The intersection of our ideas being zero, it’s not worth taking it forward here. I would be happy to discuss our ideas offline.

> cannot AFFORD or do enough

Afford needn’t necessarily mean to deal with “finance”. (Chk: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/afford). As an example, ppl can say like, “I cannot afford a meeting now”. If I had talked abt financial affordability in rearing a child, I wudn’t hav said anything abt the cost of contraceptives. In case, the majority of the readers here think different, please re-phrase my sentence so as not to mean “financial affordability”.

> all the parents try to do the same

There are parents by accident. Who can’t abort pregnancy & didn’t want to dump on birth. They think babies are god’s boon. Such parents don;t feel very responsible in giving anything & everything to their child. Just count the number of parents who whud want their children to work & not to go school.

> Regarding people dumping kids in dustbin
> remember that abortion is illegal in India.

How abt precautions? Pills? Or if u don’t know what to do & also don’t want to contain it, why do u want to do it at the 1st place?

> dump in a dustbin or wherever in the hope that it makes its
> way to some “home”(not homage) that

Comeon, If they hav good intentions, they shud find a better place to dump & not dustbins, where crows/street dogs/scavengers group.

> who are WE to decide that education is a child’s right,
> and that too to be provided by the parents?

Why not we, if you cud take up the freedom to express yourself? What do you want that child to do? To work? To wander the streets? Don’t limit your thoughts. Why don’t u think education is a child’s right?

And I didn’t say anything abt the level of education, each child is entitled to. The power to think & understand your surroundings (people/places/things) comes with education.

> we do not have even any moral authority to decide
> who should/shouldn’t have kids.

I’m not recommending my ideas to amend as a laws. And there is no law to preach good behavior.

Aparna notes that those kids were wearing torn clothes. Do you think any responsible parent would allow their kid to wear torn cloths? Why don’t they sew it & let them wear? If you way that they cannot afford (finiancially) to buy a needle, I wud ask, don’t they know that rearing a child is much more than just paying up for a needle? Why do they need a child, if they can’t even buy a needle?

All I wanted is that the parents shud to take care of their children well. They shudn’t consider their sons/daughters to be a burden to ruin their life. If a parent (be it a poor/rich) think otherwise, may he/she not experiment with lives.

Ennathan economic policy konduvandhalum this situation will prevail, though population is one reasonf or this, but cant agree with the point of poor parents should not give birth to child.