I WITNESSED an incident at a mall a few days ago that brought tears to my eyes.

A mother of two young children dressed in expensive clothes was leaving a high-end store laden with shopping bags. Following her was a shabbily dressed boy no more than 10 years old. He was pushing the stroller of her younger son.

The servant was visibly distracted by the toys displayed at the shop next door. The lady noticed and shouted at him in extremely rough language to follow her and he complied.

A few yards further, the woman told the servant to wait outside a store and went in with the elder child. I watched the boy take a toy out from the stroller’s storage hold. His eyes sparkled as he held it. Reluctantly, he gave the toy to the toddler.

I could not restrain my tears as I left the place. This little episode that lasted no more than a few seconds had shaken me to the core.

We lament endlessly about the corruption in government, nepotism in society and rigging in elections. Our civil society appears at rallies, holds vigils but seldom gives a thought to the child labour in their homes.

Thousands of children are employed as domestic servants to ‘play’ and look after the children of the elite, at the cost of stealing their childhood. We are hypocrites to condemn child labour while hiring young children as domestic help.

The Unesco 2014 Report states that almost 2.5 million children aged between 10-14 years are engaged in child labour. According to Unicef , the right of every child is: to be cared for, protection, freedom of expression and participation, education and play, survival and development and rehabilitation and care.

The privileged population of Pakistan should shun child labour in every form. We need to come out of the delusion that our ‘food and protection’ is a much better fate of these unfortunate young citizens. The future of Pakistan is in our hands.

Dr. Jahanzeb Effendi

Karachi

Published in Dawn March 1st , 2015

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