“Who will open the door, who will open the eyes”
Photo Collected
A group of men and women in black clothes are walking slowly. The shadow of deep sadness on their faces. He is holding the body of a small child wrapped in a white shroud with both hands to his chest. The treasure in their chest is now frozen, silent. The flower is dropped in the bud before it blooms. They are overwhelmed by the indescribable grief of losing a child. In front of them, some of their fellow passengers are throwing questions to the crowd – ‘Who will you say it’s dawn?’, ‘Who will you say to open the door?’, ‘Who will open your eyes?’, ‘Who will wake you up?’
This special protest was organized by Natyasanganthan Prachyanat in front of the ‘Concord Emporium Shopping Complex’ at Kantaban Mor in the capital on Saturday afternoon with the symbolic bodies of children. This ongoing performance called ‘Shishumarg’ was done in the event of a large number of children dying due to measles. Measles suddenly appeared in the country from the middle of March this year. Gradually it turned into an outbreak. Thousands of children continue to be affected. The consequences are dire. More than 500 children died prematurely (the latest death toll on Saturday was 521).
বিজ্ঞাপন
Prachyanat thinks that these deaths of children happened due to gross negligence in the medical system. The theater workers demanded strict punishment for those involved in this ‘willful’ negligence. Azad Abul Kalam, the head of Prachyanat, told Prothom Alo that out of a sense of social responsibility as cultural workers, they protested against this huge infant mortality and demanded justice for medical negligence. Prachynat has always been vocal in protesting against social crises.
In this ongoing performance, a group of Prachynat workers were carrying the symbolic corpses of children. Such a scene is often seen in newspapers or on TV screens – parents leaving the hospital with the body of their beloved child covered in cloth. In the same way, the theater workers have brought out the heartbroken pain of those childless parents. Another group of theater workers asked the passers-by, eager crowd around, “Who will return all these fresh lives?” “Who will say if we don’t wake up mother, how will it be in the morning?”
বিজ্ঞাপন
The journey of the theater workers started from Kantaban and halted in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh. The symbolic mortuary was arranged in three rickshaws. A giant measles germ with red eyes in the middle of the van. The shrouded bodies of children are piled beside him. Numbers are written on the corpses. When the vans came to a stop, the actors started asking various questions about the child deaths. Pointing to the bodies, they said, ‘These children have been killed.’ They said, “Hundreds of mothers’ chests have been emptied.” They asked, “When will the political chess game with children stop?”
After traveling from Shahbagh, Shishumarg stopped in front of self-earned freedom sculpture at TSC of Dhaka University. Children’s poems and songs such as ‘Bhoor holo door kholo’, ‘Noton Noton Pyaragulo’, ‘Thakob Nako Badh Ghere’ are played along with the performance along the journey. All together creates an emotional atmosphere.
After the performance at TSC, Shishumarg again marched to the ‘Smriti Chirantan’ square in front of the Vice-Chancellor’s residence. Here was the last performance. A large number of curious onlookers gathered at each place and took part in this protest. The audience’s heart was touched by the theater workers’ anguished performances and their protesting questions about the death of children. They also wanted effective measures to be taken to prevent this death march.
At the end of the performance, the senior member of Prachyanat, Jaganmoy Pal, said in a short speech that they hoped that this country would become a children’s paradise. But due to planned medical negligence it has turned into a children’s hospital today. He demanded the punishment of those responsible for this and said that their protest will continue. They will again take to the streets after Eid to protest against measles and the recent incidents of child abuse and murder.
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