Heart-breaking: This six-year-old sells flags for a living but has no clue about Independence Day

Celebrations are in full swing across the country as India celebrates 69 years of independence this year. Standing at the Ram Mandir Square in Bhubaneswar, six years old Khushi is also holding national flags but not to mark Independence Day. She is trying to sustain another day by selling the flags to patriotic citizens of the country.
 
On being asked, she confesses that she does not know why Independence Day is celebrated. Deprived from education, the young girl says that she only knows that August 15 is observed as a holiday, and people buy these flags and place them on their dashboards of their vehicles or wear it on their dresses. “My father is selling these flags at Unit-I Market and has given me some to be sold here” she says.
 
Shackles of poverty are still not letting many young kids out there live a free life.  Many children in Bhubaneswar like Khushi walk up to cars stuck in traffic jams, in a bid to make money by selling tricolor badges or polythene flags. “Is it not the biggest paradox in this country- destitute children, deprived of basic amenities, trying to make money by selling flags to others celebrating 'independence’?” asks Pradipta Patnaik, a social worker.

To read more: Six-yr-old Khushi from Bhubaneswar sells national flags but is not aware of significance of I-Day