Child Labor In Pakistan

Human Rights......Issues of Human Rights.....Issues of Human Rights in Pakistan.....Child Labor in Pakistan

                    I was sitting in my car waiting for the signal to turn green. I had got very tired from the day's work back at office. So much so that I did not hear the gentle tap on my window until it was done twice again. I looked to my right and saw a very cute looking child looking at me through his twinkling black eyes. He would hardly be of ten years of age. I thought he was asking for some money and I rummaged into my pocket for a coin or two. But then I saw a yellow piece of cloth in his hand used commonly for cleaning the windscreens of cars. He was beckoning me to allow him to have a go at my windscreen too. 

When I nodded in affirmative, the child looked back for a moment and then started doing his job. I noticed a stout man standing at some distance away from him. He was carefully and constantly observing the boy. It drew me a bit of suspicion but I shrugged the idea. I gave some money to the kid when he had finished with his cleaning. There was some impassiveness in his eyes when he took the money without thanking me. The signal had turned green so I had to move my car forward. After crossing the signal, I looked back and saw the child handing over the money to the same obese fellow. I was true! The man was his mentor and was exploiting the child for his own objectives. It meant that my money had landed in wrong hands.

Through all my way till reaching home, I was thinking of the kid and his master I had run across. How many of such children are forced to do petty jobs at the age which is ripe for acquiring education. Instead of going to school, these children are working day and night under all circumstances to earn a handful of money, not for themselves but for those involved in the heinous crime of child labor. And that fat man! He is enjoying a happy life at the cost of the future leaders of this nation.

And what is the government doing to stop all this? Thousands of children are working in factories and workshops with the government high ups oblivious of the situation. Maybe they are busy resolving a myriad of other problems which threaten the welfare of the society. Merely passing a bill in the parliament does not actually change the reality. I was unable to fathom the vista I was framing in my mind where many Abdus Salam were mending the shoes of passerby, scores of Martin Luther were welding the car parts together and still many Einstein loading and unloading a truck full of garbage.

I reached my house and as soon as I entered, both my kids ran up to me shouting in affection. They started telling me about how they had spent their day. But I was just staring at their faces with a blank expression on mine. They were about the same age as that child, but they were living comfortably with their family in their home having no fear and responsibility at all. So what was the fault of that child? Just because he was born to a poor family unable to bear his expenses, he deserves to work like a laborer? Is it not our responsibility to extirpate this evil from our society? Till when shall we continue to carry on with this indifference and apathy? Till when??