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Friday March 29, 2024

Kids involved in daily labour under compulsion

By Ibne Ahmad
January 25, 2017

At the corner of Chaklala Scheme-III commercial area Gul Zameen, a boy in his early teens, sells flowers. He took this labour under compulsion as his father, a daily labourer, is drug addict and is not capable of bearing the burden of his family. Therefore, the entire burden is being borne by Gul Zameen and his mother, a domestic servant.

“When I was in the seventh class and faring well in my studies, unexpectedly one day I had to give up my school and soon after that I started selling flowers and other wares in Chaklala Scheme-III running from one car to another and making frantic endeavours to find the right kind of customers,” says Gul Zameen. The expressions on his face indicated that he was lost in the memories of his by-gone days, for a short time.

“For quite a long time I found it difficult to forget my institution and classmates, but now I have got used to my new conditions of life and never remember the good old days. Now I never think of going to any school in future.” Would you spend your entire life doing this labour? “No,” he retorts.

I would like to move to the fore as far as my idea of real life is concerned,” he says.

Gul Zameen is not the only kid to be found in such a condition in the city.

There are countless of such ill-fated kids who had to abandon their studies forced by wretched circumstances to earn bread and butter for the members of their poor families.

Juma Khan, a 10-year-old kid, landed here from Peshawar leaving his near and dear ones behind. He was a student of primary school in Peshawar. “The financial conditions of my family got worse, as a result I left my city and arrived in Rawalpindi and got involved in daily labour here,” he says. Same is the tale of Feroze Khan. Both work at a restaurant here.

At many points of the city including Chandni Chowk and Gulzar-e-Quaid one finds labourers putting their tools on the road in a row. Most of them never have been to any school. Noorul Hasan hawks goods at City Saddar Road all the day.

Zulfiqar Ali polishes shoes going from restaurant to restaurant to find a customer. And being poor, their main concern is not schooling but earning some money to support the family. Despite the fact that there are laws against child labour, the kids continue to work on tea stalls, hawk the goods and polish the shoes. “I think such laws are meant only to demonstrate to the outside world that we are really worried about our underprivileged children,” says Iftikhar Kazmi from Haideri Chowk.

At citywide restaurants fresh-faced young boys are still seen dishing out the tea. At a restaurant near Pindora Chowk, a boy whose face has never required a razor blade brought me steaming ‘chai’. The boy is unable to confirm his date of birth, but says he has been working as a ‘chaiwala’ since the age of 11, when he left his village school.