November 14 – Children's Day in India

November 14, 2020

Posted on November 14, 2020

Today is the birthday of India’ first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He was very fond of children – and thought that children were very important to the future of the nation! – and so India celebrates children on his birthday.

“Chacha” Nehru advocated for children to have education and said things like “The children of today will make the India of tomorrow. The way we bring them up will determine the future of the country.” He talked about the importance of bringing kids up with love, carefully and lovingly nurturing children, and about the universality of kids:

“The vast army of children across the world, outwardly different kinds of clothes, and yet so very like another. If you bring them together, they play or quarrel, but even their quarrel is some kind of play. They do not think of differences amongst themselves, difference of class or caste or color or status. They are wiser than their fathers or mothers.”

On this day India commonly holds events for and by children, but although India is doing fairly well with the pandemic, this year there may be a change in normal educational and motivational programming for Children’s Day.