SWABI: A father of three young boys has no qualms in putting them to hard labour instead of enrolling them in school as ‘all his efforts to make them aware of the importance of education have failed to bear fruit’.

The three young souls work at a stone crushing machine installed at Saleem Khan Khwar (rain-fed nullah) along with their physically feeble father from dawn to dusk to earn their two times meal.

Sardar Mohammad, father of Aziz Mohammad, 12, Hassan Mohammad, 9, and Abdul Aziz, 7, is a resident of Suri Ghar, an area located on the border between Swabi and Buner districts.

According to locals, though a school is situated in the area, Sardar Mohammad or, for that matter, his children did not want to benefit from it. They said it was responsibility of parents to make their children go to school.

“Majority of young boys in the area are unwilling to receive education,” Razawanullah, a local, admitted.

The plight of the three children can be gauged from the fact that they work in very dusty conditions, but they are content with it no matter how dangerous it is for their health.

These children should get education and involve in other healthy activities, said Mohammad Farooq, the owner of the stone crushing machine.

The locals said they were really hurt at seeing the plight of the three brothers. “Every day when I see them inhale dust blown off from the crushing machine it hurts me a lot. I implored their father to put them to school, but to no avail,” Shahzada Fahad, PTI youth wing president, said.

Sardar Mohammad insisted when they (the children) did not want to go to school then this was their fate, collecting stones and sand. “If you leave them free they would fight with other children and create disturbance. I am happy that they work with me and remain under my guard,” he remarked. He admitted that the school was very close to their home but his sons refused to study. The teachers also approached the children, but they did not agree to go to school.

The father said a few years back he was living in a rented house but now he had his own abode. There is no holiday in the work except Eid days or in case the nullah is flooded, he said. Rohal Amin, president of a local NGO, Samajee Behbood Rabita Council, said it was parents’ foremost duty to force their children to go to school.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2017