Daily Times

There is no denying the fact that child labour is one of the worst ills in our society. The world is modernizing day by day while subsequently, Pakistan’s literacy rate is decreasing due to child labour.

Keeping children out of schools and employing them in homes and fields instead, leads to a decrease in the percentage of the population that is educated. Conditions of poverty normally give rise to child labour. One of the main reasons for this is because families prioritize the earning of livelihood over providing education to their children due to their impoverished conditions.

The fundamental of child labour is poverty. Poverty diminishes the vision of education and lets the victims down by creating a diminutive environment for their survival. Paupers cannot do anything else except finding a source of bread for their family. All other extraordinary things such as education, personal grooming, and future development, are unknown to them. Poverty undermines one’s whole existence when individuals are forced to make hard life choices.

After witnessing such disruptions, the poverty-stricken begin taking assistance from their employers. They impose onto them the responsibility of providing nutrition to their family – which needs less investment, earns less money too, but feeds them on a daily basis, at the least. Poor people are deprived of almost everything that human beings need to live their life in ease.

Most parents do not know the value of education and, being uneducated themselves, prefer their children to work for a little amount of money, bread, and butter. Most of them are compelled to do so just because they do not have any source of income and are hand to mouth; they have limited resources to make their children aware of education.

Every parent would like to make their child aware of the pen and paper; however, it becomes taxing for some parents who tend to become prey to the shortage of money, leading them to the fold of depression. It is a child’s basic right to get an education but child labor takes away this right. Education and poverty both seem like two stones the middle-class family is stuck in the midst of. Children crush their dreams before the more compelling and profitable wishes of their parents.

Children who have an interest in seeking education are bound to earn rather than to learn. Their dreams are crushed in order to fill the stomach of all their family members. Children – soft-skinned and innocent– work as waiters, servants, sanitary workers, and laborers at garages rather than as students, learners, and aspirants of knowledge.  These children strive to earn money the livelong day, in spite of which they get small amounts which barely meet the expenditure of their family.

Is this not a tragedy for children, who can be future scientists, philosophers, and technocrats? They are stuck in earning or learning puzzle. Their mind is dizzy. Aren’t the unstable conditions of their family responsible for this? Others are responsible too- those who hire innocent children on minimum daily wages. These employers must be confronted with the appropriate laws which spell out the consequences of promoting child labour.

Apart from the hiring, they also take advantage of how meek the children are and negotiate a lower salary. If the masses of our country consider this curse as a critical and colossal issue in Pakistan, they must take progressive and constructive steps to abolish child labour. They should take rigorous action against employers who endorse and practice the hiring of minors.

The richer intellectuals in Pakistan should ensure that generations are acquainted with the importance of education, their motives and the purpose of their existence in this technical world. It is widely believed that the youth are the future of a country, but it ought to be in the practical fold. Children must be given proper education because proper education will allow them to accurately depict the ideology, code of conduct and values of their country.

God endowed the masses with the best personality traits. They should utilize these in a meticulous manner. They must fully represent their cultural and ethical portrayal in front of the world. This will give them the opportunity to seek tremendous knowledge to move along with the contemporary globe.

Consequently, child labor is a setback for our society. It is the duty of higher authorities to rectify this issue on a priority basis. Responsibility also lies on the parents who voluntarily employ their children as part of the labor force. They should be informed about the importance of future prospects and work to prepare their children for a successful future, by providing them with wit and wisdom.

Child labor can destroy the upcoming generations of Pakistan due to ignorance and illiteracy. The persistence of child labour will be deadly for a successful future for this country.