Innocent workers

By Hameed Diplai

“IF Meena goes to school, who will make us earn our bread and butter?” Meena’s
mother asked when she was told to put her innocent daughter in school.

Meena’s father died of hepatitis B when she was just eight years old. She had no
other option except to work in a carpet‐making factory to earn a living for her
family. Aggrieved by her husband’s death, her mother was not in the position to do
any work. Among many other problems, Meena’s father was in hock of Rs15,000 to
someone. She had to look after her two younger sisters and one brother as well. Like
other people of Thar, Meena had dreamt of continuing her studies, but she could not
because she had to work in order to make her family lead a reasonable life.

Dreams take a back seat and gradually slip out of

sight of little angels in Thar. If anybody asked these
children: “Who pushes you to leave your ambitions
aside?” their uncomplicated answer would be “our
parents”. And if someone else asked: “Why don’t you
protest against such an attitude?” the reply would be,
“Sorry, we can’t, because if we do so, who will earn a
living for us?”

Approximately, 246 million children around the world and more than 4,000
underage children in Tharparkar work to help their families survive. The poor
families in Thar tend to have more children and with large families there is a greater
chance that children will be employed somewhere and have lower school
attendance. Thari children sacrifice precious moments of their lives in herding the
animals and working in industries like that of carpet weaving. As their fingers are
delicate and small, they are supposed to be good with carpet‐weaving machines.

Tharparkar is the land of beautiful dancing peacocks whose colours communicate

the message of life but barren sand dunes reflect deep sorrows. Each person in Thar
is like a sad story. Thar presents an overview of a dreamland in case of timely
showers, but if the heaven does not relent and rain doesn’t come down, there is no
food for the Tharis to feed themselves as well as their animals. When such a
situation becomes visible in the vicinity, a prolonged shortage of food hits the area
and the ultimate outcome is migration from the area.

Tharparkar is well‐off as far as minerals go. Due to such an economic scenario,

people depend on moneylenders and look for loans at high interest rates. These
poor families cannot afford to repay loans with high interest and eventually engage
their little angels in weaving.

Children in Thar start working in the carpet industry from an early age. According to
many parents educating a child can be a significant financial burden and this makes
very difficult for them to invest in their children’s education. Despite the fact that
books are provided by the government’s education department, educating a child
requires something more than school fees and books. A research conducted by an
NGO, Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP), indicates: “Many children
in the area do not go to school due to poverty and indebtedness. Parents do not
afford to pay the cost of education. Sometimes parents do not realize the importance
of education for their children and they ignore its benefit. The vicious cycle is visible
here: the children work in the carpet industry because they are not educated; they
do not go to school because they are working.”

According to the report, 12 per cent children of the

whole population of Tharparkar are engaged in carpet
weaving. Whereas 39 per cent are employed in
household chores, 15 per cent are engaged in other
types of work like herding animals, working in
garages, and 34 per cent don’t do any work. Working
children never demand anything. Their parents never
deem necessary to ask if they want to work or not.
They work in the carpet industry for 12 hours a day. If
they make any error during work, they are physically punished.

In order to change all of this it has to be understood why things are the way they
are. Intellectuals believe in ‘developing the advanced principle of childhood’ that
should have a certain standard and should be acceptable to all societies. The idea
accepts a child as an individual of society and welfare is considered as basic right of
the child. The concept gives preference to effective growth of innocence to maturity.

The life within the home and multipurpose education is important under the
perception of good. It is a fact that children in the developed countries are now
linked with the world. But Thari children are still worried about the fact whether
they will eat three meals a day or not. It is not the technology that these children
need, but something else. They do not worry about the war along the Indo‐Pak
borders; but yes they are worried about snakes. Snakes bite them when they come
back to home from their work place. Children in the West or in bigger cities are
provided with mineral water; but Thari children have no access to safe sweet
drinking water. They often drink 4,000 to 5,000 ppm brackish water. Their life is at
risk, but nobody is thinking about it. Policies are being ratified, but who cares about
implementation? This is a serious issue rooted and could not be solved through
collective efforts.
Pakistan’s Constitution does not allow anybody to engage their children in
hazardous work and legislation in this connection has been passed; but no
significant action has so far been taken.

November 27, 2005

The Magazine, Daily Dawn