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/café/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.
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