Present government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa claims for every child in school as revealed in it drive for new enrollment in government sector’s schools.
In Malakand the situation is sever in respect of child laboring. Every day in working places, hotels, break’s kilns, shops, filling stations and about all the laboring spots, each and every body can observe child laboring in Malakand while there is no one to take practical step for the stoppage of such practice.
We observe much more and a step upward in worsen situation when try to ask someone to refrain from child laboring, as they reply in such a comprehensive mood about the poverty of the child’s family that minds stop working further to stress for it.
Malakand, the war hit area, still survive in its way for economic growth and financial stability for its inhabitants. More than 38% population still living below the poverty line and young educated class is striving for jobs and employment.
Youths and aged persons, all are compelled to work for very low wages across the whole Malakand, but minors are also in the scene to work hardly for the survival of their families.
In workshop, a child while working with a mechanic on engines replied very sadly that he and his sisters each and every day see their ailing widow mother begging for their food in the village while he is seeking the work experience in a hope that one day he might be able to earn. His mechanic teacher gives him Rs 120 each day as a stipend to him, not because the minor is working for him, but on humanitarian grounds while many other minors don’t get so much. They receive only Rs 50 to 60 for their fare charges. It revealed. Government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has passed the bills regarding ban on child labor, but still there is no practical steps taken to do so.
Only passing the laws is not the solution, government should take serious the menace and should go on to its root causes. If we want to ban child laboring in Malakand even we should facilitate deprived and poverty stricken families for their kids’ education as well as there is intense need of financial assistance to them.
Benazir income support scheme is a little bit beneficial, but poor families and poverty wracked families are still waiting to get the desired financial support cards. Rich are the main beneficiaries of the scheme, because the political figures used it as a political bribe.
Child laboring is a common practice in Mal-akand and no one notices it as a crime. NGOs and other social workers while in a ma-ss awareness campaign only get the photo sessions for me-dia and for their self-promotion.
There is no need of mass awareness on Child laboring in Malakand, each and every family know it, but they need resources and financial stability to refrain from child laboring. Government should initiate policies and practical efforts for eradication of main causes of minors on work.
In Malakand, there is places of work for children and no one notice it. The drop out increased from the schools at a high risk. All those students who leave off the schooling, goes to the nearby working places , workshops or hotels to keep on work there for earning.
There is no ban practically on these working places to hire minors for work. Even corporal punishment reported in the workshops and mechanics shops. The minors are compelled in such a violent environment to keep work continue, as there is no one to re admit them in schools. Education department in Malakand has no such a policy to bring back dropped out students to schools and even parents are also reluctant to do so. It is the dire need of the hour to minimize the child laboring in Malakand, otherwise the future of the minors is sinking into darkness. Let realize and normalize the worsen situation in Malakand to stop child laboring.
Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should launch a drive for the stoppage of child laboring.
Here is another alternative too to minimize the menace of child laboring. The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its elementary and secondary education department in the provincial capital should initiate a policy of night shift of educating the students involved in hard working. The government possess teachers and schools across the Khyber Pakhtu-nkhwa and should utilize the already available resources through the additional budget of very low cast, necessarily the overtime salaries to the teachers concerned.
Through such practice, in a very short frame of time, minors will get education as well as reality check for their socio-economical uplift. Cue to common practice of child labor in Malakand, here is intense need of a drive for stoppage of child laboring or minimizing child labor.
Shah Hussain
Dargai
shahmkd2@gmail.com
