SUKKUR, June 12: Children working in auto workshops are paid very low wages and are sometimes subjected to even corporeal punishment by their ‘ustads’ for minor mistakes, complain children working at workshops in the interior of Sindh.

“Head mechanic often beats me and other boys during the work. Out of Rs20 I get daily, I spend Rs3 on bus ticket, give Rs10 to my mother and buy some sweets for Rs7 which I chew all the day,” said 14-year-old Kashif, who has been working as a motor-mechanic for nine years. He was holding a banner carrying slogans against the child labour at a ceremony at the Sachal Auditorium Khairpur on Tuesday.

The ceremony titled “The end of child labour, together we can do it” was organised by a local NGO in collaboration with the Job Creating Development Society and the labour department in connection with the International Child Labour Day.

“I, however, manage to spare some time to attend an informal school because I want to learn writing and reading and save myself and my ustad from embarrassment in front of customers,” he said, adding that children usually work from 8am till late in the evening. He said he had to take permission from his employer to attend the school.

Children studying in informal schools run by Sindh-based NGOs perform plays and sing songs depicting the problems faced by child workers and their aspirations for a better future.

The menace of bonded-labour was depicted as an evil spirit haunting child labourers. The moral of plays was that the menace could only be eliminated if all the people worked against it.

Kashif’s friend and co-worker Latif Dino, 13, said that he had been working as an auto-mechanic for four years. His father Mohammad Rafique is a carpenter and got himself injured many times during the work so he decided to send Latif Dino to the workshop to be trained as a motor-mechanic.

“I was very upset in the beginning as my ustad used to beat me whenever I committed any mistakes,” Latif Dino narrated his experience at a workshop on the Shikarpur Road in Sukkur. He is given Rs20 per day which he spends (almost all) on bus tickets as he comes from a far-off village.

Twelve-year-old Shamsuddin, also son of a carpenter, said he had been learning welding for three months and it had been a horrible experience for him. “I can’t sleep due to eyesore caused by welding sparks unless my mother puts some wet mud on my closed eyes to soothe them,” said Shams.

He said he had got his hand burnt many times during the welding. “If I don’t work properly my ustad would beat me.” He said he got only five rupees a day, of which he spent four rupees as bus fare and gave one rupee to his younger brother.—APP