Traveling on the GT road some where near Hassan Abdal we pulled into this filling station. The tank was almost empty and had to be refilled. A moment later this child appeared at the car window. A beautiful child who could not be more than twelve years old. His face was devoid of any sign of cheerfulness that is generally associated with children of his age. While the car was being filled I decided to have a short conversation with this child. I asked him why he was not in school. His answer was simple. He does not go to school. “Why’ I asked again. “He does not†he repeated his answer and walked away from the car window and stood against the hedge looking the other way. That is when I took this snapping.
This child is no way unique. There are millions of small children in Pakistan like him that do not go to school and spend their day working at tea stalls, bicycle repair shops, as petty hawkers, cleaning boys and the job list goes on. I am posting this picture here on ATP to shake our collective conscience with the same question: Why this child does not go to school?
Is it that his parents do not want him to be educated? Is it that they can not afford for his education? Is it that there is no school near where he lives? What are the reasons that this child does not go to school? Almost all of my Pakistani well-off friends and relatives are forever ready to tell me how wonderfully their children are doing in school. I hear this endless talk about O level and A level. But how many of us, including myself are concerned about these children of lesser god. We could blame the government, system, politicians, mullahs, feudal lords and so forth and so on till we are blue in the face. But my question is that what we have done lately for these unfortunate children except exploiting their poverty and the system by employing them as domestic servants. I am not trying to single them out but from his book ‘Indus Journey’ I got tired of reading how Imran Khan went to Atchison College and Oxford to play cricket. How ‘Daughter of the East’ Benazir Bhutto went to Harvard and Oxford. When are we going to send this twelve years old coconut seller to school?
Have a look at this website and do your part.
http://tinyurl.com/2uhc6w
Long Live Pakistan
Quite recently there was an ad on electronic and print media.
“Mera khawb parha likha punab…….. Baat tu mehsoos karnay ki hai”
We got huge funds from international community and education was recipient in social sector. But these funds are spent carelessly, we are far behind to achieve our target of achieving universal primary education by year 2015. We need to inquire how much amount was spent on ads to promote their political interest rather on efforts to bring real change by promoting eduction.
PMA sahib, that guy have now learnt the easy technique of avoiding this answer as people like you ask the same question several times a day. Because in argument he has to listen variety of advises and none of them wants to know the circumstances compelling him to be a coconut seller.
If we really want to make a difference then here is an opportunity to support “The Citizens Foundation” which has helped 55,000 young kids go to school so far.
http://www.thecitizensfoundation.org/main.php
I hate to be such a pessimist, but I’m sorry…This child will never go to school because his education is secondary to NOURISHMENT. What an arrogant question to ask an innocent child; you probably added to that guilty, hopeless feeling in his stomach that none of us, sitting here comfortably blogging, will ever know. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ask these questions of ourselves, we all have that responsibility (a truly unselfish few of us can and do actually make a difference). It’s just that, in this case, you should have bought a coconut, and then found a way to get the boy a copy of that photo you took of him, or maybe taught him something about your camera, or maybe let him a photo of you, or maybe taken a photo of the two of you…You see what I’m getting at?
Mudassar, you have been blessed with an opportunity to do the right thing. You can help yourself by helping the young kids who are working at your house. I am sure if you do that, you’ll become a less bitter person. May be you can rekindle the spirit of volunteerism among your friends as well. Good luck.