KARACHI: Although Education is the fundamental right of every human being but schools are unavailable for the children of slum-dwellers in the metropolis.
The public schools are also inaccessible for them because majority the slumberous parents don’t even have identity cards. Temporary residence and shifting on regular basis also creates hurdles for those children to acquire basic education.
There are hundreds of shanty towns, located in the suburbs, open places and in the banks of drains or rivers of the city, which have been built by gypsies because they are unable to afford costly rental houses in the normal neighborhoods.
Thousands of children who are residing with their parent in shacks are deprived from basic right of education due the reason. Their defenders are usually unskilled but they search any livelihood to live better life. However, they don’t have any planned occupation and their living style is miserable which continues with coming generation.
“The importance of education has its own place but technical and vocational training like sewing of cloths, crafting and other type of skills can comfort their living style a bit”, Dr Akash, who runs a charity clinic in the shanty area of Gulshan I Iqbal said.
The government is providing basic education free of cost but the children of shanty towns don’t have permanent residence. Therefore shifting from place to place disturbs their studies as well, he further said.
“Earlier my family had some cattle which were a basic support of our family but afterwards when I shifted to the city, can’t afford cattle”, Hera Laal, a resident of the Gulshan I Iqbal’s shanty town told that he and his forefathers have no property or home anywhere, which has forced his family to move from one place to another. Therefore he and his children have never enrolled in any school.
“Our children are growing without education because the non-government organizations start their schools for a specific period and volunteers do not not come on regular basis for the teaching into shanks”, Muhammad Sharif, another resident said .
However, Imam of the nearby Masjid and her wife are providing them religious education without taking any fees. Whereas in the public schools, slum- dwellers are not able to provide a proper address and the documentation to enroll their children in schools.
“We have set up an institute of non formal education, it is aimed to educate the children of shanty areas but their parents are not taking interest to send their children for learning” Naila Kashif, a social activist residing Nearby the Gulshan I Iqbal’s shanty town said that most of the parent prefers that their children to beg in the streets and collect some money and other things for them.