| 01 October 2004 | Friday | 15 Shaban 1425 |
Modernizing the madressahs
Focus on child labour
The Senate's move to set up a joint parliamentary committee on Balochistan is most timely and appropriate. It is good that the authorities have at last become serious about addressing the issues and problems agitating the Baloch people.
With some parliamentarians from the province as well as members of the opposition included in the panel, it will hopefully find acceptance with the Baloch. So disillusioned have they become with the treatment meted out to them for decades that many Baloch might be sceptical of the initiative.
Some of their leaders had rejected the idea of a Senate committee proposed earlier. One hopes that the government will be able to reassure the nationalists in Balochistan that the panel is not just another device to soothe frayed nerves - without any intention of resolving the problems that exist.
For this it is important that the committee should give a fair hearing to all sections of Baloch opinion. It would serve no purpose to take shelter behind technicalities in order to avoid coming to grips with the contentious issues.
At the root of the discontent is severe under-development and widespread poverty and the fear that the mega projects in Gwadar and the coastal regions will provide a cover for the induction of outsiders into Balochistan, making the Baloch still more deprived and impoverished.
Although the government, including the president and the prime minister, has been giving assurances that the province will be developed and the right of the Baloch to have the first priority in recruitment will be adhered to, this obviously has not won the confidence of the people.
One can hardly blame them for it, given the discrimination and ill-treatment that have traditionally been meted out to them. It is important, therefore, that development projects be so designed as to build an infrastructure in the province for the uplift of the local people and not to provide easy economic and employment opportunities to people from other provinces.
Similarly, the commitment to give the Baloch the first right to employment in the various projects should be honoured by ensuring that they are actually recruited for the jobs created.
This might entail the setting up of centres to train them in various skills and bring them to the required level of qualification. At the same time, health and education projects in the provinces must be given a boost so that progress is comprehensive. The need is to show the Baloch that unlike in the past, the government is serious about taking them on the road to progress.
Along with this, a mutually agreed formula for the division of royalties - not just for the gas from Sui but also for the copper from Saindak and the gas pipeline from Iran to India across Pakistan - and its actual implementation would offer a pragmatic solution.
The idea should be to restore confidence and good faith between the centre and the province. A positive gesture in this context would be for the federal government to withdraw its announced plan to build new cantonments in the province which have also proved to be major irritants for the nationalists since they signify a disproportionate military presence in the province.
One hopes that the parliamentary panel just formed will prepare its report after in-depth discussions with the Baloch who have raised their voices on various issues. In fact, the panel could also play a mediatory and conflict -resolving role which could go beyond the 90 days given to it for its assigned task.
Modernizing the madressahs
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's direction to the ministry of religious affairs to "facilitate madressahs to provide modern education" to the students enrolled there is most timely.
Considering that this issue has been under discussion for two years or so - an ordinance was also issued requiring madressahs to be registered - it is time that the government enforced its decisions.
Although madressahs have a long historical tradition in the subcontinent and have produced some eminent religious scholars in India and Pakistan, recently they have proliferated unchecked.
Barring a few, they have emerged as purveyors of obscurantism and do not believe in teaching modern disciplines apart from religious education to their pupils. Some have become breeding grounds for militancy, thanks to their interpretation of jihad and the military training some of them are known to give to those on their rolls.
It is, therefore, important that the government moved ahead with its policy of modernizing and humanizing the madressahs. By widening their course of studies and entering the education mainstream, the madressahs can make themselves more useful than they are.
First of all, if their students have been taught the subjects which other school-going children learn, it would enable the graduates of the madressahs to enter the education system at any stage.
Thus the madressahs would not constitute a parallel system of education as they do at present. Moreover, the students who study Islamiat as well as modern subjects would find themselves qualified for other jobs apart from those of prayer leaders and religious teaching.
The government, which has a policy of bringing all private schools under its umbrella, should also work for the registration of the madressahs. That would enable it to regulate their curricula, funding and admissions.
The religious parties have been resisting this move as they have become used to the free rein the madressahs have so far been enjoying. Since it is important to bring the madressahs under some regulatory system, it is imperative that the required measures be taken without delay. Mr Shaukat Aziz would do well to see that the "facilitation" he has spoken about actually takes place.
Focus on child labour
The International Labour Organization recently conducted a workshop in Islamabad where participants rightly stressed the need for greater media coverage of child labour. Unfortunately, the sight of young ones forced into backbreaking labour and robbed of all the rights of a normal childhood, including education and good health, is so common in Pakistan that it has come to be accepted as an inseparable fact of life.
Caught in the web of poverty, it would be impossible for millions of families to sustain themselves economically if they did not send their children out to work in the fields, factories and in the homes of well-to-do people. How then can it be made possible for them to leave off work altogether and enjoy a carefree childhood?
Given the grinding poverty of the people, and with no proper social welfare system in place, it would be impractical to entertain such utopian hopes as a society without child labour.
However, what is possible is a phased elimination of this scourge - that would, of course, also entail serious attempts at poverty alleviation. There have been success stories here, and the football-making industry is one example where child labour has been reduced by a whopping 95 per cent.
Also, if it is not possible for millions of child labourers in the country to stop working right away, wide-ranging reforms must be undertaken to improve working conditions so that their health and spirits are not impaired by the harsh conditions of employment.
The ILO has identified several areas of risky occupations for children, including the fishing, mining and bangle-making sectors. Children should be kept out of these altogether.
Meanwhile, learning from the experience of other societies, factory owners, even private households employing domestic servants, would do well to ensure that their young workers attend literacy classes, possibly on the work premises, at least a few times a week.