CHILD labour is a practice that deprives children from getting an education and having a proper childhood, all the while affecting them mentally, physically and socially. Yet this is a practice that is extremely common in Pakistan.

Children are made to work from a very tender age in order to support their families when it should be the other way around. The main cause of this is poverty.

Poverty-stricken families often have several children because they believe that the more children they have, the more sources of income it would be. So all of them are put to work as soon as they are five.

We, the educated masses, are also at fault because we don’t think twice about hiring children to do work we could hire adults to do or do it ourselves because kids are easier to exploit as compared to adults.

The young maids we employ to do our housework, the little boys we employ for running errands and those who work in garages all deserve better.

We should make a serious effort in rectifying this major flaw in our society. We can make a huge difference by taking the responsibility for educating one poor child.

Rida Mazhar

Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 21th, 2014