Child Labor and Forced Labor in Balochistan / Syrian and Turkish children labour work to surrvive their lives in foreign land.
Examining child labour in Balochistan.
An issue which is troubling the Baloch nation for a long time is child labour which is yet not resolved. We find children leaving school and joining a local garage, workshop, store or something else to earn enough for their families. Some people send their children in labour work despite the presence of elders in the family and some send in compulsion.
mostly I witness the ones who have elder brothers and even father. But they show no mercy for their children and instead of sending them to schools, they send in garages.
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Child labout in Bricks factory "Bhatha "
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I got confused confronting a child of age 7, working in a Zarang car (A local car which is mostly used in transportation business). The most shocking thing for me at that very moment was that he was working with his elder brother who was nearly 25 years old. The 7-year-old was out of school. Despite the presence of his elder brother who was yet unmarried, the smallest brother aged 7 had to leave school and join his elder brother in work. It makes one think, what the core reasons could be.Well, the root of child labour has spread in all other cities of Balochistan province as well. A large number of children from the province are out of school. According to a recent report, in Balochistan there are nearly 12,000 governmental schools in which primary, middle and high sections are included. Surprisingly, more than 7,000 schools are classless, nearly 2,000 do not have teachers.
Only we can find nearly 1,200 schools where the educational facilities are better. But unfortunately in these schools, teachers are present without any good preparation for the classes, corporal punishment is allowed though the government has forbidden it. With this a number of students leave their studies.
| Child labour in Balocistan. |
Through my personal experience, I remember, we were 60 while I was in class 5th, in class 6th the number of my classmates was 50. In class 9th while I changed my school, I had 65 classmates, but as we reached grade 10th, we were only 45. And now in college I just have 25 classmates from my school. Unfortunately, I have met with all of them who left their studies and now work in garages, workshops and few have got a job of peon. This is the result of the mismanagement of the educational system.
Furthermore, the foundation of child labour has spread in rural areas of Balochistan the most. According to a recent survey, in villages of Balochistan, every second child is a labour. I have my own cousins in villages who are taking part in the incomes of their houses rather than participating in educational fields. They are unaware of importance of education. The educational system in villages is next to nothing. Teachers are unaware of their responsibilities. Apart from not teaching the classes, they mostly indulge with their personal discussions. This discourages most students to continue with their studies.
In Balochistan, government has failed to eradicate child labour. There is need for effective strategies by the government to work on the issue so that every child gets an education and a better life.
Child labour in Balochistan ( Pakistan Province).
Child labour is a serious problem in Pakistan. It’s the employment of unprivileged children who go through physical and mental suffering. It is estimated that more than one million children are working under the age of ten and now they are less than 6 years old. It causes serious harm to society. In this age they have the right to play and study but they are kept working for days for just some pennies. They work in companies where the owners pay them a little.
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| Malala Yousaf Zai addressing a seminar for child labours. |
In 2016, Pakistan made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. Pakistan ratified the UN CRC Optional Protocol on Armed Conflict, and the Punjab Provincial Government passed legislation establishing 15 as the minimum age for employment and 18 as the minimum age for employment in hazardous work. Balochistan Province passed the Child Protection Act, which mandates the creation of child protection units, which provide for a referral mechanism by which rescued children can be placed in protective custody and obtain rehabilitation services. In addition, Punjab Province launched the Elimination of Child Labor and Bonded Labor Project. However, children in Pakistan engage in the worst forms of child labor, including in forced domestic work and bonded labor in brick kilns. Balochistan Province has not established a minimum age for work or a minimum age for hazardous work in compliance with international standards. Provincial Governments do not have the resources necessary to enforce laws prohibiting child labor.
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| A little child to forced as fighter in Kabul. |
In 2016, Afghanistan made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The President signed a new Law to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants, hired 14 new labor inspectors, and adopted the Policy on Child Labor in Carpet Weaving. The Government also prosecuted five soldiers involved in a possible case of bacha bazi – a practice involving exploiting boys, often through threats or violence, for social and sexual entertainment – and investigated 60 men in Balkh Province for involvement in such practices. Bacha bazi exists in all provinces of the country, with specific cases documented in the provinces of Balkh, Baghlan, Helmand, and Uruzgan during the reporting period. While some elements of bacha bazi are prohibited under existing Afghan law, the term is not specifically included or defined in the law, making it challenging for law enforcement officials to comprehensively address and compile statistics on these cases. Boys who are victims of bacha bazi are often treated as criminals rather than as victims. In addition, children in Afghanistan are engaged in the worst forms of child labor, including in armed conflict and forced labor in the production of bricks. Also, Afghanistan’s labor inspectorate is not authorized to impose penalties for child labor violations, and the Government lacks sufficient programs to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.
In Turkey, a Syrian Child ‘Has to Work to Survive’
ISTANBUL When he was 9, Ahmad Suleiman watched his father die from a battlefield wound in Syria. Four years later, he now puts in 12-hour shifts at a damp and squalid textile factory in Istanbul as the primary breadwinner for his family, which fled to Turkey after his father’s death.Over one million Syrian children live in Turkey, and thousands of them, like Ahmad, are in sweatshops, factories or vegetable fields instead of in a classroom, members of a lost generation who have been robbed of their youth by war.
Like many others in his situation, while he toils for his family, Ahmad is paying a steep price. “I want to send Ahmad to school because he doesn’t know how to read and write and can’t understand the bus signs,” said his mother, Zainab Suleiman, 33. “But I have no choice. He has to work to survive.”
Many of the children who arrive in Turkey have already lost years of schooling because of the war. Before the conflict, 99 percent of Syrian children were enrolled in primary schools and 82 percent in secondary schools, Unicef has reported. Today, nearly three million Syrian children are out of school, and for those in Turkey, the education gap has either grown longer or become permanent.
While more than a million Syrians have reached Europe, many more — three million in all, including Ahmad’s family — have been forced by poverty to stay in Turkey, where their prospects are bleak.
The recent deal between the European Union and Turkey to curb the flow of illegal migration into Europe intended to protect Syrians from dying in the Aegean Sea and to improve, with billions of dollars in aid from Europe, the conditions for those living in Turkey. Those promises were supposed to mean more children in school, and work permits for their parents.
Instead, the deal may collapse over an issue unrelated to the plight of Syrians: Turkey’s refusal to revise its terrorism laws in return for visa-free travel for Turkish citizens traveling to Europe. The impasse has left the future for Syrians in Turkey even more uncertain.Image
Until now, Turkey has spent billions of dollars caring for Syrian refugees, providing them with free medical care and the right to an education. Yet more than 400,000 children are still unable to attend school because most of the Syrian families are living outside camps, mostly in poverty, and are struggling to secure work that pays enough to cover the basic necessities of food, clothing, rent and transportation, aid groups say.
Other factors preventing children from attending school include language barriers, confusion over enrollment procedures and transportation-related issues, said Selin Unal, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee program in Turkey.
so sad
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