In unathletic India, we have to look upto a 4 year old marathoner

4 yr old runs 65km. Exploitation and abuse? Budia Singh, a child born in the slums and estimated to be 4 years old, has entered India's Limca Book of Records after running 65km (40 miles) and being deemed the world's 'youngest marathoner'. "Budhia's miserable background as a slum child who was sold by his destitute mother as a toddler for 800 rupees, or $18" had served to enhance his appeal and in typical bandwagon fashion had local politicians falling "over themselves to be photographed next to the child."

However, after his accomplishment and being lauded as a miraculous child and role mole model, "the country's most powerful human rights body launched an investigation into whether the spectacle constituted child abuse."

This story has many twists and turns and is interesting on many levels:

1. As a runner, I can say with no uncertainty that running 40 miles, even for an adult, is not healthy. For a child who is nearly 4 and still developing, this type of exertion is definitely not beneficial. So as to the question of whether this is injurious/abuse, the answer seems to be yes, and his coach should be stopped from doing further damage to the child.

2. Politicians were besides themselves initially trying to personally benefit from Budhia's accomplishments. These same politicians, most of whom drive by poor slum kids everyday with little regard, were quick to jump on the bandwagon when they thought it might make them look good. This type of exploitative behavior is commonplace amongst politicians in general and Indian politicians seem to have taken this to the next level but utilizing/exploiting a child for these purposes is a seemingly low even for this group. And after the human rights uproar, these same politicians have either fallen silent or changed their stances 180 degrees.

3. Budhia's case as stated seems to indicate abuse and exploitation by his coach and politicians, but ironically, it seems that his accomplishments as "India's Forrest Gump" do afford him an opportunity to thrive (albeit his coach and others will probably thrive more and this opportunity would come at a perhaps severe cost to his health) more than a typical slum kid would. A typical slum kid faces little chance of being successful while also facing daunting human rights and societal impediments which go unnoticed by the millions on a daily basis.

4. As the article that appears in the NY Times says, "The case says much about India's thirst for athletic heroes. Despite its population of 1.3 billion, India won just one silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and beyond cricket, its sporting achievements are limited."

5. Does anyone care about the Limca Book of Records?