When children are brought into the world they need nurturing. We find that this is the most important aspect of raising children. A child is like the rose in ‘The Little Prince’. “It is the time that you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important”, said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

The Little Prince, ”The process of taming”, the fox explains to the prince is that they will come to mean something to each other and will need each other.

I am bringing up the subject of early onset of puberty. It leads to children dropping out of school and child marriages which are still happening in many parts of the world. This problem is increasing as our children are eating food which is laced with hormones, and this in turn leads to hormonal imbalances. Therefore, marginalized communities are engaging in this practice of early marriages. I will not name the communities; I am writing about and I have seen this first hand.

Children have lost their childhood

I have had a series of house keepers, who have been married between the ages of 11—13. They have children early and by the time they are in their twenties, their child is ready to be married off. They seek a job, when they are twenty years old because of the cost of living and poverty. They also are illiterate. The children who have left school early have a poor future. They fall into bad company and sometimes become criminals. Such children have lost their childhood, especially remain children at heart. Their understanding of life is warped. They view the world in an immature manner. My comment is that these persons need nurturing, who will give it to them? Their perception of the world is through instant gratification.

I work with children living on the streets with their parents. Our only objective is to give them a childhood. We enable them to follow a routine so that when they go to school, they are attentive. We nurture them and they respond by reciprocating affection. This simple act makes them whole.

Children have to be taken care of everywhere

Many children grow like wild flowers, but everyone is not so fortunate. The polluted environment adds to the list of problems which children develop. The hormonal imbalances are further compounded by children developing attention deficit disorders, asthma, obesity and early onset of diabetes. The hormonal imbalance also develops because of stress at home, which stems from domestic violence, addictive behavior on behalf of the parents, illness and incest. Such cases are increasing and the play of the hormones on distressing behavior of children is increasing. What is working for such children is talk therapy and it is not giving medication. The question is who must speak with children. It has to be someone, who has been trained in counselling.

Yoga is also a powerful tool which can be used for children. A simple practice like the tree pose, centers the children. It works on the mooladhara and ajna chakras. It balances them and the mooladhara chakra is most active before puberty and after puberty it calms them. The ajna chakra works on their thoughts, which are confused and muddled. Candle gazing (trataka) is also a practice which teaches concentration, removes headaches, improves eyesight and centering.

We must remember that it is not only the children below the poverty line who are in need of counselling and nurturing. Such children exist everywhere in the middle and privileged classes. These symptoms are now being discussed openly.

Aim Hrim Klim

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