The vulnerability of Pakistani children
Saeed-ur-Rahman, a kid from Landhi, a poor suburban locality of Karachi, was canned on hands by his teacher daily while attending the daily morning school assembly, for wearing a small size shirt that could not be buttoned properly and gave a casual look. Saeed did not want to make his parents dejected by asking for a new shirt, as they did not have money.
So little Saeed came up with the idea of wearing the same shirt with sleeves rolled up to make up for short sleeves to avoid beating at the hands of the teacher. I met Saeed when he recalled this moment, that he nearly decided to leave school because of maltreatment by that teacher, but thanks to his late father who never compromised on children’s education. Saeed, later, went on to become Country Manager of LG Pakistan.
Among all the solutions to uproot the maladies that plague the children including physical, sexual, psychological abuse, or neglect or child marriage, educating the masses is the master key and we can never stay in peace in cities while millions of youth remain uneducated in the vicinity especially the border areas of Afghanistan.
Being an ex-airliner, I was approached by a jobless former crew herself being an acute sugar patient and single mother of 10 years old Mustafa, begging to help her son being molested by bigger boys, as she cannot afford to send Mustafa to school and tuition leaving him roaming around.
When I saw Mustafa, he was more beautiful than Bilawal’s and Maryam’s of this country but devoid of means to education and own home. I did my bit but he and many like him need constant assistance for attending school as absence from school is one of the major reasons for children catching the attention of unwanted elements of the society.
Read more: 8 children are sexually abused every day in Pakistan, report
Mass Abuse of Helpless Children
The situation in this regard is alarmingly scary in Balochistan especially in hundreds of mines where innocent children are at the mercy of lusty men. The boys are not safe from men there. The town of Shahrag, located in Balochistan, has around 400 coalmines where over 30,000 men are employed and children are brought here from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and across from Afghanistan for the sole purpose of sexually abusing those miners. The innocent children are used as sexual partners by adult coal miners and the poor kids just suffer from no help whatsoever.
Akbar Notezai who carried out a bold study on the matter writes that unfortunately, parents turn a deaf ear to any complaint on the basis that these children get them money. This is why Shahrag’s children have to have friendships with people as old as their parents.
Bigger responsibility should be entrusted to such educationists who are entrepreneurs as well like Mr. Hunaid Lakhani, owner of Iqra University, as the entrepreneurs know how to mobilize resources.
The same goes on all around. The far-flung areas away from cities are more prone to child abuse with hardly any whistleblowing. Maybe the organizations working for children have developed more academic than realistic with putting on more effort on documents than equally parallel groundwork.
Among all the solutions to uproot the maladies that plague the children including physical, sexual, psychological abuse, or neglect or child marriage, educating the masses is the master key and we can never stay in peace in cities while millions of youth remain uneducated in the vicinity especially the border areas of Afghanistan.
Read more: CCI launches an important project to overcome malnutrition in children
Arresting the Epidemic
To immediately overcome this menace; parents of these areas should be paid Rs.17000, the average minimum wage declared in the country, per family against not sending their kids for earning. Established School Franchises who are already earning much in the country be advised to award Franchises without commission to locals of these areas as a part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) program.
When I saw Mustafa, he was more beautiful than Bilawal’s and Maryam’s of this country but devoid of means to education and own home.
Bigger responsibility should be entrusted to such educationists who are entrepreneurs as well like Mr. Hunaid Lakhani, owner of Iqra University, as the entrepreneurs know how to mobilize resources. Since he is a politician also hence he will be in an ideal position to wield force and ensure all necessary stakeholders’ participation for materializing the desired outcome.
Seeing the vulnerability of children the United Nations has set up a separate agency UNICEF and we should not lag behind in view of its gravity in this part of the world.
Mushtaq Jumma is an Ex-Airliner and Business Consultant. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.