Child Labor in Pakistan: Unveiling the Tragic Reality

To be poor is the biggest evil, especially in the world of Economic Liberalism, which manifests itself in the various constructed version. Needless to say, the vitality of an idea can be actualized in the demonstration of material objects; similarly, Pakistan, a country which faced the alternative ways of civilian and military authority with the absenteeism of timely assets supply, and what’s more dormant period of prosperity since ever its establishment, yet witnessing the surge rate of child labor in throughout the country. Recently, “Education Above All”, a global education foundation, with the cooperation of the Asian Development Bank, is planning to enroll 960,000 children in Pakistan that were out of school, depicting the worse condition of children’s future.

Child abuse, a dominant crime in our country, is being done mostly at the workplace as labor, of course, by their masters. Knowing the catastrophic situation of their future in the state, parents give preeminence to work intentionally, because our state is unable to give them free education as mentioned in Article 25-A, the constitution of 1973, which is a crisis. Unfortunately, Pakistan is the territory of various extremist militant groups, and child labor is the golden opportunity for the amplification of these militant groups. Do you think, these extremist groups install their advertisements in the public for the new recruitments? The answer is never, so they haunt child labor frequently by giving the lust for money and their survival in the future on the juggernaut of corruption of language.

Street crimes, such as robbery, rape, and theft, are the consequences of child labor in our country, subverting the peace in society. In the life of childhood, labor may be convenient as compared to education for them, because they are innocent and greenhorns, especially the immensity of little money. Then, who are the perpetrators of their lives? Firstly, the state itself whose performance to democratize all the basic needs is null, provoking unchecked implementation of the child laws in the country. Secondly, the parents who instead of bearing these monetary impediments, favor to their current conditionalities, promoting their culture of poverty. Thirdly, the educated people in the society, especially teachers, do not motivate and proper guide them, showing courtesy and sympathy towards them. Fourth, electronic media, a prominent agent of socialization, is not portraying the realistic face of this grim reality and its repercussions in subverting the peace of society. Lastly, they have lethargic behavior towards studies and more heed over just playing and in time squandering.

Inflation has an explicit linkage with child labor, providing necessities of food availability. Inflation is the name of absenteeism in the availability and affordability of food for the poor, so when food becomes inaccessible, parents favor their children to be financial supporters in this hunger, without concerning the devastating reality of their future. With excessive child labor, how can a country excel or even survive in the era of modernity and artificial intelligence? Subsequently, these laborer are manipulated as cheap labor because they are already suppressed in the advancement of technology and skill-based tendencies.

Written by  M. Touqeer Niaz 

Human Activist at Punjab University

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