World Day Against Child Labour: Audience touched by young girl's tale

By Tariq Naqash

MUZAFFARABAD, June 12: The audience at a seminar, held here on Saturday, were touched when a young girl from a Muzaffarabad neighbourhood recounted to them her feelings in the aftermath of suspension of her studies on account of financial woes.

“After the sudden death of my father, I had to quit my studies halfway and help my mother as a domestic labourer to meet our household expenses,” recalled Bushra at the seminar, organised by Children First, a child-focused NGO, in collaboration with International Labour Organisation (ILO) to mark the ‘World Day against Child Labour.

But fate had a surprise in store for Bushra. She was able to resume her studies after the UK based charity, Save the Children, which was later succeeded in AJK by Children First, offered much needed help to her family.

“I wanted to pursue my studies but apparently there was no chance. Thanks to Allah, my dream actualised and today I am a first year student,” she said and called upon parents “not to compromise on the education of their children.”

While Bushra’s story carried a message of optimism, experience of Seema - a young girl from a mountain village - was however shocking.

Seema was brought by a female teacher to Muzaffarabad from Bhairi village, some 40 kilometres northwest of here, around 10 months ago ostensibly to be imparted quality education but in effect to do household work.

Lately, when the 12-year old returned to Bhairi much to her horror she was accused of committing theft reportedly because the teacher wanted to evade payment of remunerations.

Seema, who was accompanied by her father, suffering from Parkinsonism, narrated her ordeal in broken words but it also upset everybody in the audience, particularly the speakers.

“We have to do away with such incidents which are against the tenets of Islam and tarnish the image of our society,” said Syed Nazeer ul Hassan Gillani, secretary AJK Social Welfare and Women Development department.

Aizaz Naseem, AJK’s additional Chief Secretary (General), expressed the hope that people would not forget issues like this for the rest of the year.

ILO representative Shahbaz Bokhari made a presentation on the perils of child labour as well as measures to tackle its worst forms.

Educationist Tanvir Lateef however drew attention towards some bitter facts, saying compulsion would drive many parents to send their children to work instead of school, unless the basic issues were addressed.

She urged the education department to come up with a scheme to impart education to such children.

Prominent among others who spoke on the occasion were Dr Iftikhar Mughal, Sardar Siddique Khan, Sarfraz Abbasi and Asif Raza Mir.

Earlier, Children First chief executive officer Mubashir Nabi highlighted the achievements of his organisation regarding uplift of neglected children.

“We are already implementing a project designed to benefit 500 children living without parental care and provide support to 37 female headed households in target areas,” he said.

At the conclusion of seminar, around 20 children, drawn from various schools of Muzaffarabad, were given gifts and certificates for their drawings depicting various forms of child labour.

Later in the afternoon, an exhibition football match was held under the aegis of Children First in the University College Ground with teams comprising 12 each children picked from different workshops and hotels and trained in the sport for one week.

Jubilant players wearing blue and white sportwear also posed for photgraphers after the match.

Opposition MLA Chaudhry Rasheed and several other dignitaries were among the spectators.

Ends.


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Tariq Naqash