Monday, February 27, 2012

Feature


No garbage bins on Campus
    The first day on campus some three years before I found myself walking through a filthy area with empty bottles and discarded plastics with disposable cups. New entry to the country’s oldest university was indeed a day to remember, but these containers weren’t bits and pieces from my celebrations they were scattered everywhere just for the reason of lacking recycling bins on campus.
    Covered by an area of 1,800 acres the University is home to around 30 thousand students enrolled in 65 modern disciplines. The campus is covered by lush green fields with plenty of ever green trees located on both sides of the canal which intersect the academic departments and boarding area. With no provision of dustbins at different places, people are littering freely in the open area. Being a university there is not even a single dustbin on roads, lawns, canteens and at bus stands. Walking tracks, playing grounds, hostel lawns are also facing the same situation.
    Due to lack of dustbins, lots of garbage can be seen lying in department lawns and on roadsides, which leaves bad impression for everyone. “I am amazed that the Campus which is a part of learning for students does not even have a single dustbin. On one hand where the lack of dustbins spoils the beauty of university, it also reflects the negligence on the part of authorities,” said Usman Khan, a student at Institute of Communication Studies,
    Another student Sara, said, “As learning process not only focuses on reading books but can be achieved by the social acts made by the student is a part of this whole development, it seems that the authorities are not taking into action without dustbins where one will put the garbage. In this case, people throw waste on roads and in the lawns and other parts. When the administration can not provide dustbins then how can they urge people to keep their campus clean.”
     “I had to throw a wrapper and after roaming everywhere in the bus stand I did not find a single dustbin. There are some people like me, who put the wrappers back in their bags but mostly people, throw garbage anywhere and everywhere,” a student said.
    With addition to books and other courses it is pertinent to have some awareness creating lessons about the social and environmental norms that will build a student to take actions against such issues.


Child Labour in PU


Helpless Adolescent; with on hope of Better Futures

     More than scores of thousands of students serve with food on campus. They contain the labor of children, working under conditions of great stress and hazard. The canteens/cafĂ©/hotels employ hundreds of people; including more then 70 percent of them are under age children who are paid less than 150PKR a day. They are working under severe conditions.
      In the age of learning these adolescents are forced by their parents or contrary helpless families to make money, so that they can run their homes. One of the reasons is that societies, systems and individuals have closed off other options for the poor. The need for a relatively small amount of cash can bring failure for all the members of a poor family, when illness occurs or a crop is lost and credit or a loan is refused.
     “I am here to support my family financially, my father is poor and there is no one to assist them,” 15 years old Ali said, I am happy, I can earn and provide them a valuable assistance. These children belong to nearby rural areas in the adjacent of Lahore city where people are unaware about the child labor because of lack of education.
     In the age of learning these adolescents are forced by their parents or contrary helpless families to make money, so that they can run their homes. One of the reasons is that societies, systems and individuals have closed off other options for the poor. The need for a relatively small amount of cash can bring failure for all the members of a poor family, when illness occurs or a crop is lost and credit or a loan is refused.
    “I have passed primary school and always try to learn with keen interest, my family can not afford my studies, I have sisters and I am the only brother of them they all dependent on me.” Rizwan a laborer working in the hostel said, while 17 years old Aman Ullah is preparing for his secondary school certificate examination, he bear his all expenses with his own support by working in a canteen at hostel no. 16.
And many more working children with in the territory of campus have the same stories.  They are suffering from physical, social and psychological stress their lives or struggle offer them no alternative and no hope of better futures.  Any work that weakens a child’s dignity and self-esteem or is harmful to full social and psychological development is dangerous.
     Education is an essential component for the solution. Pakistan as a signatory member to Convention on the Rights of the Child should provide full protection to the children from such exploitative labor.