PukhtunWomen

Profiling poverty while discussing the case of a little girl who cannot live without work.

As long as children are allowed to suffer, there is no true love in this world.

• Isodar Duncan

The first five years of a child, according to Sigmund Freud, are the most crucial. In the case of a girl born into abject poverty, they are as insignificant and unexciting as the rest of the years of her life. She is accustomed to contributing to the household not depending upon it. She usually becomes an individual with low self-esteem, a self-image reinforced by phrases commonly used to describe girls as ajazzay (in Pashto), meaning feeble or helpless. Always treated as inferior, she is attuned to putting herself last.

In Pakistan cities, one frequently comes across little girls either scavenging for recyclable scrap, selling trinkets, or simply begging. In the rural areas they are seen looking after the younger siblings and doing the household chores while the mother works in the fields. In the peri-urban areas they might be seen making bricks at a brick kiln in the scorchingheat with her little hands.

Girl child as a domestic servant.

I am not sure how many “sins” I would recognize in the world. Some would surely be diffused by changed circumstances. But I can imagine none that is more irredeemably sinful that the betrayal and exploitation of the young by those, who should care for them.

A girl child working as a domestic servant is one of the most frequent forms of child labour that takes place in Pakistan . The younger the girl, the more severe could be the exploitation. Employers, mostly from the educated class are not even ready to acknowledge this form of employment as child labour. Little girls are preferred for their energetic and unquestioning attitude towards work, and because their services come cheap. They can be easily trained and moulded according to the demands of the employer. Training certainly does not entail any formal education or specific skills that would help her in future. She is expected to learn how not to be demanding and accept whatever good or bad comes her way.

Asiya, 7, ,migrated with her family to Islamabad from Chiniot. Eldest amongst four sister, Asiya was sent to a house for work. The work hours varied, depending on the convenience of the employer. “I wash dishes, knead flour, mop the floors and do whatever else that is required of me,” she says.

Upon her return home in the evening, she feeds her little sisters as her mother is dead and the father is mostly out in search of employment. For Asiya, finding leisure time is close to impossible. Education for her is a luxury, which her father can not afford.

Parveen, 9, whose family migrated to Islamabad from Sialkot , ended up working day and night in a house where the employer's son, who is m entally retarded, would beat her. At times I get scared, as he becomes extremely violent. He hits me for no reason at all. I do all the household chores that are expected of me but Baji (the lady of the house) always shouts at me for being lazy and careless. I often cry as I miss my home and family,” she says.

In the case of Zarina, 10, her grandmother was told that she would have to be a playmate for the 6-year-old Farah. In reality she plays the role of a punching bag that is not supposed to retaliate towards the little child who hits, spits at her and treats her like a toy. “Yeterday, Farah Bibi hit me with a wooden block. Begum Sahab asked me to be calm with her as she is just a little child,” reports Zarina. Her vulnerable situation leaves no chance for protest.

Asiya, Parveen and Zarina are amongst thousands of little girls who are working for a few hundred rupees, despite being abused and mistreated. They have no choice but to carry on. There is no law to check the way little girls' agility, innocence and poverty is being exploited in ordinary households.

Girl child on the streets

Children seldom have a proper sense of their own tragedy, discounting and keeping hidden the true horrors of their short lives, humbly imagining real calamity to be some prestigious drama of the real grown-up world.

These children mostly belong to families that have migrated from rural areas in search of employment. Others have been displaced by the war in Afghanistan- who are discriminated against more because they belong to an ethnic minority. All these girls are paying the price of poverty, parental illiteracy and unemployment.

Most of the girls engaged in scavenging start off early in the morning and return home in the evening. With plastic bags on their shoulders, they scour rubbish dumps with their bare hands and pick up pieces of litter that might be of some value. These young scavengers survive on recyclable rubbish produced by city dweller.

Among them Shaheen 11, Maryam 9, “I start early in the morning and collect paper wherever I can find,” says Shaheen. “Paper is sold at Rs 2 a kilo. After selling it at the taal I manage to earn Rs 25-30 a day.”

Gulnar, a Pashto-speaking girl, sells crisps from afternoon till night. She knows several jokes and is articulate. She refuses to accept money unless it is being paid for the crisps that she is selling. To all those sitting in their cars sermonizing and condemning her, she has a favourite reply: “If I work elsewhere or start going to school, will you feed my family, provide us with atta?”

Rehmat Bibi sells trinkets of all sorts in a basket resting on her head, for more than 8-9 hours each day. “I manage to earn Rs. 35-40 a day, but by the time I reach home I am totally exhausted. The basket on my head gives me a headache. At home, I help my mother with the household chores,” she says.

The girl child on the streets is vulnerable to maltreatment, danger and exploitation. Little girls surviving on the streets are engaged in an activity that can endanger their lives.

The convention of the Rights of the child states, “States shall protect the child from economic exploitation and work that may interfere with education or be harmful to health.” Ameena, died while scavenging for scrap amidst open electric wires. Shheen was taken by the police and harassed. Ayesha a scavenger died in Rawalpindi while hurriedly trying to cross the road with a bundle of scrap on her shoulder.

There is generally great solidarity amongst their groups, in spite of occasional squabbling over bits of fruit or other leftovers lying on the pavement. The police view these girls on the streets as young criminals rather than disadvantaged children. Maryam proudly claims, “I can run so fast that except my friend Naz Bibi, no policeman can catch me. We do not hurt anyone. We only collect the litter thrown by people.”

Shaheen adds, “I do not mind collecting the paper, but it's the police that scares me. They say we are not supposed to collect trash. Whenever they can, they take us to the lock-up and ask for a fine. Once the police took me and asked for Rs 800 as fine. My father had to borrow money from friends and relatives to bring me out.”

“I know how not to get caught by the police,” Zainab says. “All they want is money: money for which I scavenge all day long in the heat”.

If vagrancy is an offence, then should these children be considered to be guilty of the crime? The Convention on the Rights of the Child states, “Children involved in infringements of the penal law shall be treated in a way that promotes their sense of dignity and worth and that aims at reintegrating them into society.”

The girl children on the streets, be they scavengers or trinket sellers, have sacrificed their childhood for the survival of their families. They have to fend for themselves while other members of their families are struggling elsewhere. Poverty takes their childhood away.

Girl child at the brick-kilns

I do not like my work. My fingers ache every day. Every night I wish it would rain tomorrow, so we do not have any work.

In the peri-urban areas a large number of brick-killns are producing bricks under environmentally hazardous conditions. A number of families, mostly migrants or refugees, live around these brick kilns, crammed into crude shelters fashioned from straw and mud.

Arriving with no special skills, a labourious and monotonous job awaits these disadvantaged families. They must struggle to survive with inadequate food, shelter and healthcare. They earn just enough to get by, but not enough to improve their lot.

A brick-kiln worker earns an income that is below subsistence level. “With this much income, we can either buy food or fuel. Not both,” says a brick kiln-worker. Another worker, whose four children also work at the kiln, adds, “Without their help we would all go to bed hungry.”

For Sharifa, 6, at every sunrise a new day begins; yet another long, exhausting day. The seasons change all around, but her job of moulding unbaked bricks in the sun remains the same. The working conditions are harsh to say the least. Every day, she fills the kalab (cast) with mud and leaves the bricks to dry in the sun. Her sister Hafiza, 9, then stacks these unbaked bricks in the kiln. To add to the heat of the kiln, dust, noxious fumes given out by the burning of coal, firewood, waste oils and rubber tyres that fuel the kiln, are constantly being inhaled by the girls at the kiln. “By the end of day my fingers ache and I feel tired and worn out says Sharifa.

Yasmin also works at the brick kiln. Besides helping with her father, she helps her mother with the household chores. From dawn to dusk she works amidst heat and fumes, without complaining about the premature death of her childhood. The mother says, “By the time she returns home, she is so exhausted that if you were to give her a nudge, she would fall flat on the ground.”

Yasmin's family is bonded to a way of life that has trapped them in a cycle of poverty. It offers no hope for progress. They are paid very little. Most of their wages are taken away from them to pay back the loans that the father had taken from the employer as advance payment to get his eldest daughter married. The daughter has been married off but the family's bondage to the brick kiln has become eternal. There are still three daughters to be married off. That would mean more loans, child labour and stronger shackles.

Child labour is a bitter reality that will persist as long as poverty and illiteracy remain. Efforts to eliminate child labour must be coupled with policies of poverty elimination otherwise efforts to eradicate child labour can drive children and their families into greater destitution. However, as a second-best option, the number of working hours could be reduced, wherever possible, to free up time for leisure and education in technical skills Individual members of the public, instead of condoning child labour or waiting for legal reforms, can make their contribution in this respect. Through media campaigns, non-government agencies can suggest actions for individuals to take with respect to such disadvantaged children within their sphere of influence.