By Sanskriti Pandey:
“It’s something people believe so that they can make themselves less scared,” says a kid who looks no more than 12 years of age, when asked what religion meant to him. In a diverse India that turns communal at the drop of a hat, we often ignore what the children of the country are growing up into. While we’ve carried our identities forward along the years, we often forget that these children are creating their own.
In this first video of a series on social issues called “Kids Speak Out” being brought out by Being Indian, kids between 7-12 years of age and of different backgrounds were filmed answering some questions on religion. This video highlights some very interesting, brutally honest, and some quite beyond-their-age responses to questions like what their religion is, if they have friends of other religions, if they are different, what purpose does religion serve and what a world without religion would be like. Their unbiased and innocent viewpoints demonstrate how easily religion can be confused with language and origin, and also unabashedly display the honesty with which they say that a world without religion would be, in fact, a better place. Watch this video to know what religion means to Indian children today.
