Childhood is considered as an age of growth in which children learn to live in society, but the case is different for those innocent souls who are experiencing strange reality by chasing every car stopped at signals to wiping dirt out from their screens at the cost of their innocence.
The number of these children from the poverty-stricken communities is increasing with every passing day. They run towards the cars approaching traffic signals and try to take lead to wipe the windscreens. These kids are sometimes badly treated when the drivers ask them not to touch their cars whereas many a times they get very little reward for their service.
Nine-year old Salma, who is doing the same job at a signal in Sector G-8 with fellow kids, while talking to Pakistan Today said, “Mostly when I clean dirt from the widescreens of cars, motorist do not pay and instead abuse me by saying that he did not ask for it. Salma said she was forced by circumstances to opt for the profession, as her father lost his both legs in an accident. Therefore, she and her two brothers, aged 11 and 13, were now working to manage the family.
“I was very good at school. I was very sad when I left the school, as we were not able to pay the fee. My mother asked me to start working as I have to take care of my poor father as well,” she narrated her sense of responsibility with dejection. SPARC Executive Director Arshad Mahmood said, “Child Labour is depriving a large number of children of their right of education and society have witnessed cases where child domestic workers lost their lives due to torture and inhuman treatment by their employers.”
He said Pakistan was committed to the Article 32 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that says: “State Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”
“My father died two years ago and since then I am doing this job as I am elder of six siblings and I have to manage all the expenses of the family; so I have to work to support my family,” said 14-year-old Tahir, who was standing at a signal in Aabpara. He said he did not go to school but he was hardly managing to send his two brothers and a sister to school as he wanted them to be successful in life and get better jobs after completing their studies.”
A psychiatrist Rizwan from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) believes that the children working in the streets are treated in a brutal manner and they could become criminals in their future in a bid to take revenge from the society. So they should be saved from cruel child labour. Sadia Chaudhry, a representative of SPARC, told Pakistan Today, “Working children need to be protected and their rights and dignity should be respected. But unfortunately, some people pass ruthless comments and remarks and reportedly abuse them as well.”
She lamented that these children cleaned the windscreens but people must wipe the tears.
