The following article written by Ms. Anita Dua, Principal, DPS, East was published by The Hindu, Metro Plus Visakhapatnam on Oct 11, 2004.

Sometimes I wonder why the `child' has suddenly become the cynosure of all eyes. In olden days, families were virtually football or cricket teams with at least ten children being the average offspring per couple. They were all accepted as God's `blessings' and no second thought was given to them. And they would all grow up, get married, multiply to make further families and the story continued.

Today it's the age of nuclear families, one/two child homes, and the age of scientific advancement. The world ought to have become a better, more efficient, trouble-free place, but has it? When we boast we have created a near-Utopia, we find newer problems rearing their heads, and the one person who is the most victimised is the child. Today the child is in a most complicated world. Once it leaves the cocoon of mother's body, all problems begin. Let us see how it is literally made to walk the tight rope from infancy onwards.

Owing to the population explosion, competition has become cut-throat. So the child is taught by parents and teachers to learn and `compete'. In their zeal to equip the child with all the skills necessary to make it well-settled in life the parents work with an almost missionary fervour to not only make it `excel' in studies but in co-curricular activities as well, so a child blessed with more than average intelligence finds it caught in a web of pressures.

The child's life becomes a roller coaster one with 16 to 18 hours of mind-boggling activities - school, tuitions, gym, dance or music classes, karate, yoga and what not. In this flurry of activity where has the child time to stand and stare?

Even its holidays are curtailed. With the so-called summer classes, the child goes in pursuit of yet another timetable, encroaching into its precious vacation when it ought to be enjoying freedom? Compare this with our own holidays two to three decades ago. What about the long lazy afternoons spent playing with friends, chasing butterflies, stealing fruit from mango groves, playing `make-believe families', reading our favourite stories, etc.?

Where is the child of today experiencing the joy of exploring its natural instincts, of being just itself?

And what he or she experiences in school days is just a foretaste of what pressures one will have to face later on. Once out of school, the going only gets tougher.

For every problem the world is facing today the child is taken as the yardstick. Population explosion - curb the number of children, increase in crime rate - curb child delinquents. Best money spinners... open more schools, growth in Militancy - `catch them young' and give them value education ... the list is endless.

The bewildered child of today finds all the flood lights focused on it and it can do little except blink in confusion. And it's a shame that in our zeal to make it the best, we drive it to the depths of desperation.