We went to Parliament...

 New Delhi: We are Harijan children living in Delhi in a migrant workers colony. Though we live in Delhi, we had never seen the sites of Delhi. We go to school but are not taught science. They say no science teachers are available for our neighborhood school. We are not taught any of the fine arts-music, dancing or painting. We have now formed a youth group and we are learning science, computers and puppetry at the Apne Aap centre.

Our youth group wants to learn more- we want to be part of the mainstream. We don’t need to be marginalized anymore. We live in Delhi, we should be part of what Delhi means to India. Last fortnight, sixty members of our group got a glimpse of what Delhi means to India. We went to Parliament.

We went to the Parliament museum, we got to know of our historical struggle, which started in 1885 and ended with us winning our independence in 1947.

We also had a discussion on our present ministers, like Lalu Yadav, who is our Rail Minister and Renuka Choudhary, the tourism minister. We were also introduced to the works and ideals of great people like Mahatama Gandhiji, Sardar Vallabbhai Patel etc. We got a lot of information on their lives and work and the role they played in the independence struggle.

We also learnt that the Lok Sabha could be dissolved any time, while the Rajya Sabha is a permanent body. There are 545 seats in the Lok Sabha, as opposed to 245 seats in the Rajya Sabha. Further 2 seats of the 245 are reserved. We also saw the sand brought from moon in the parliament museum. We learnt about kings of earlier times and medicine men. We learnt about the barter system, where people exchanged food and clothes and animals. We saw a beautiful museum at the parliament.

On the same day we went to the Nehru Planetarium -we learnt about stars and the solar system. We learnt about new technologies and new planets in the solar system. We learnt about new research and findings. I now want to learn science even more. Maybe, when I grow up, I will be a scientist or a politician.