The Name: Every Child has a Right to a Name

by Ramesh Srinivasan

Raju is also a name just like Abul Kalam Azad, Rajiv Gandhi, AzimPremji, etc; except that it belonged to a five year old boy. A name that no one knew who gave him; a name that was pronounced as though it was the name of the filthiest worm in the gutters that overflowed in that town; a name whose owner spent much of his sleeping hours awake amidst the mongrels in the street….till Ramesh and Raghu met him.Swayed by the ideals taught in their social work course, Ramesh and Raghu thought that they had a case of a destitute child for counseling when they came across Raju. However, the hatred for adults, particularly women and drunken men, that glowed in Raju’s eyes startled them into a world that was quite different from the one in which they had grown up. What they ended up getting into was a world in which a name could be a shame and more so when it belonged to a male child.This story is about the five year old much abused son of a sex worker whom two students of social work meet, grow fiercely fond of and manage to get into a school and hopefully an honorable life.The story is based on a real life incident and is dedicated to children of lesser mortals.

55 pages, Paperback

Published May 3, 2019

About the author

Ramesh Srinivasan is Professor of Information Studies and Design Media Arts at UCLA. He makes regular appearances on NPR, The Young Turks, MSNBC, and Public Radio International, and his writings have been published in the Washington Post, Quartz, Huffington Post, CNN, and elsewhere.