Pind murare jad main turdi Turda tera parchanva ni mae

(When I walk in the village, your shadow walks with me mother)

People at Dilli Haat stop in their way to listen as 12-year-old Jasbeer Kaur sings the song. Jasbeer has come to Delhi from Kalbanjara village in Punjab with her two younger brothers. Their father committed suicide in 2002 because he was unable to pay back the local moneylender’s loan.

Their mother left home soon afterwards never to return. Now they are barely surviving with their grandmother. This is just one example out of thousands in the Sangrur district of Punjab, where parents, one or both, have committed suicide owing to failed crop and humiliation of ever-increasing debts. The children were left behind to fend for themselves with no means of earning and a huge debt.

Navdanya, an NGO that runs a bio-diversity conservation programme, has brought 12 such kids from six different villages of Sangrur to Delhi to highlight their plight. They visited the Dilli Haat on Wednesday and will take out a march from Mandi House to Krishi Bhawan on Thursday.

Though Jasbeer, being the eldest among the three, understands the magnitude of the tragedy that has struck them, a smile never leaves her face. Her younger brothers, Gurpreet and Jagtaar, do not remember much about their parents. “We like playing cricket. We play at school whenever we get time,” says an excited Gurpreet while Jagtaar is busy teasing other children. It is their first trip out of Punjab and they are happy thinking about that only.

... contd.