Children made source of cheap labour

Child labour is on the rise in Rawalpindi. The reality is that many of those who are involved in this noble work do not see anything much wrong with little children working like full-fledged adults in odd workplaces.

"The wages may not mean much to these children but the fact that they are exposed to menial work when they see other children going to school and having time to play. This is certain to have a long-lasting effect on their minds and on their hearts, and is equal to slavery in several respects," says Niaz Haideri, a private school teacher from Saidpur Road.

"The exercise of employing young children in workshops and roadside eating places on a mere pittance goes on and the employers are too retrograde to feel bad about it," adds Niaz Haideri.

"It is very unfortunate that hundreds of children, particularly girls, are exploited when working as house maids. One is pained to see that here hardly any politician or social reformer feels motivated to crusade against this evil," says Binte Zainab from Johar Town.

Ten years ago Nazar Abbas didn't know the meaning of labour or labourer. Now 20, he works in a 'zari' shop in Moti Bazaar, embroidering glittery saris. Haider who works at an auto workshop laments about his childhood days: "I have come to know what it has been like. I was trampled, ill-treated, kicked and made to work for long hours a day."

Hussain, now a waiter at an eatery was unlucky when he was pulled out of his school and sent to Rawalpindi by his jobless father along with one of his relatives, to work as a helper at a restaurant because he promised a fabulous remuneration and a good future life.

"I was the eldest of five children and always wanted to continue my studies. My father being jobless could not support me financially. I know that if I had an education, I could have at least got a good job," says Hussain.

"The government should restrict the employment of children below 14 in all occupations and enterprises. Parents should be prevented from using family values to justify economic exploitation of children," says Mustansur Hasan, a lawyer, from Saddar Area.

"The counter-argument by the employers and family members including uncles, aunts centres on socio-economic realities. Letting children to support their families in occupations not only benefits poor parents but also facilitates children to learn a skill, goes that line of thinking," adds Mustansur Hasan.

Corroborating Mustansur's statement Ali Mehdi, a social activist, says: "But following socio-economic realities also condemn them to life in the same trade -- a potter's son, a potter, a weaver's child, a weaver. It ensnares them in low-paying, amateurish work.

Asim Ali Zaidi, a college professor, says: "A child at work is a child out of school. Consenting to child labour above the age of 14 or below, in any enterprise, leads to dropping out of school. Who will protect the rights of these voiceless kids if the city fathers continue to ignore?"

"Many of city's children are born into poverty, and yet we rarely see or hear them because they are made source of cheap labour. Denied even basic education, robbed of their rights, we throw these children into the dark world of child labour; dark in the sense that the limelight infrequently falls on them who spend their time and efforts in making others," says Najamul Hasan, a psychologist by profession.