Walking with my friend through the way of college as usual I saw a 10 year old child collecting plastics, having a trusting innocence of childhood and dreams shattered in his eyes, which shock me to the core. This left me totally distracted and I felt a dire pain from the soul to see the innocent child collecting plastics rather than going to a school with a bag. The scene put me into a number of questions; why do parents send their children to work? Don’t they love them? And what are the situations that compel the parents to take such horrible risks? Thus, it is quite heartening that in a city like Turbat child labor can be observed and is even rampant these days as a friend of mine told me that he had also been observing such cases on daily basis.
Child labor means sending an under-15 individual to work rather than to seek education, while is also means any work done by a child which is hazardous, harmful for his health, or harmful for his mental, physical or social development and a hurdle in way of education. Sadly, Balochistan ranks high when it comes to child labor. Balochistan is already confronting a wide range of issues including poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and a lot others- though yet have not been resolved by our so called representatives. Now child labor is what making the scene worse depriving the children of Balochistan of their basic right to get free and compulsory education. However, child labor is one of the greatest impediments leading the province towards vulnerable conditions and crushing the dreams of children out in the most miserable way. Although the government takes pride in declaring the province as the economic hub and future of the country, it is embarrassing and unfortunate that an ever growing crisis confronted by Balochistan known as child labor has been posing threats to the future of children.
Poverty levels in Balochistan appear to necessitate that children work so as to allow families to reach their target take-home pay. The students from impoverished backgrounds, who are unable to seek education, are most likely to fall victims to child labor. Unluckily, necessary education is not free in the province and even if it is free, the condition of the sector is dilapidated. Parents opt to send their children to work for reasons such as the poor facilities provided in an institute or on the contrary, the unaffordable fee of the others. What makes the situation worse is parents, who themselves were deprived of education, encourage their children to work instead of studying so the children bring in some extra financial gains.
Child labour remains one of the major problems afflicting Balochistan and its children. The question is: where are the laws that have been approved by the state to protect the laws of children? Why is there a lack of attention on respective parts of the relevant authorities towards curbing child labor? And what is yet remaining to happen so as to drag the attention of government that the future of the nation is being sold?