Children are our country’s intellectual capital. They should enjoy their childhood and not work in any cramped jobs. A significant portion of Pakistan’s children are living in crude conditions and their chances for education are next to negligible.
Young children are forced to do tough and hardworking jobs at low salaries. This ultimately interferes with their education and endangers their health.
Throughout the ages and in all cultures, children joined with their parents to work in the fields, in the market places and around the home as soon as they were old enough to perform simple tasks. Child labour was not regarded a social problem until the industrial revolution and the introduction of the factory system.
Children who are victims of such exploitation often die struggling with health issues such as malnutrition, skin diseases etc or survive leading an abnormal life. Due to the lack of literacy and increasing poverty, parents are forced to send their children to work and earn money which brings along the terrors of lifelong physical and psychological damage. Child labour is against the law yet we still see children doing jobs that are completely inappropriate for their ages.
Child labour should be banned so that children cannot be exploited by traders and industrialists. For this, the government should ensure that free education is provided to all children.
ZOHRA TAIYEB,
Karachi