Child Labor

CHILD LABOR God has given human beings the boon of wisdom and discretion to think upon the signs of the universe and to draw conclusions. That is the reason why they disclose the hidden facts of it and its structure and have made remarkable progress in many walks of life. Children are the flowers of heaven. They are the most beautiful and purest creation of God. They are innocent both inwardly and outwardly. No doubt, they are the beauty of this world. Early in the morning when the children put on different kinds of clothes and begin to go to schools for the sake of knowledge, we feel a specific kind of joy through their innocence.

But there are also other children, those who cannot go to schools due to financial problems, they only watch others go to schools and can merely wish to seek knowledge. It is due to many hindrances and difficulties; desperate conditions that they face in life. Having been forced to kill their aspirations, dreams and other wishes, they are pressed to earn a living for themselves and for their families. It is also a fact that there are many children who play a key role in sustaining the economically life of their family without which, their families would not be able to make ends meet. These are also part of our society who has forgotten the pleasures of their childhood. When a child in addition to getting education, earns his livelihood, this act of earning a livelihood is called as child Labor. The concept of child Labor got much attention during the 1990s when European countries announced a ban on the goods of the lessdeveloped countries because of child Labor.

Consider the point that if 30% of our country’s total population is leading life below the poverty-line wherein the people are deprived of basic necessities of life like clothing, shelter, food, education and medication, the children of these people will be forced to become Laborers or workers in order to survive. Another reason of child Labor in Pakistan is that our people don’t have the security of social life. There is no aid plan or allowance for children in our country. Class-based education system is another reason for increasing child Labor; villages lack standardized education systems and as a result, child Labor is on increase in rural areas. The government has not put its laws into practice to stop child Labor in our country. Employers after exploiting child Labor, extract a large surplus, whereas child Labor, despite increasing poverty, unemployment and other problems, are pressed to do anything and everything for their livelihood and the survival of their families.

The present government in Pakistan has made elementary education compulsory. Along with this, the government has distributed free books in primary schools so that parents, who cannot afford their children’s school expenses, send their children to schools. The major point is that this decision must be acted upon at all levels. There is strict need to stop child Labor in this country. Awareness must be raised and the attention of parents ought to be diverted to the education of their children. Child Labor Laws should be put into practice strictly. In addition, the educational system of the country-must be reshaped and restructured according to national development goals. The orphans and other deserving children must be helped financially on a prolonged basis. It is also essential to eliminate child Labor from the country, that the political, economical and social system of the country are need to be reshaped and such steps taken that make child Labor in this country a crime. They should bring on the well-being of a lay man, good governance and end to exploitative thinking. If we

succeed to act upon these principles, our country can easily get rid of this problem i.e. child Labor. The agreement that has recently been approved by Pakistan, Norway and ILO to eradicate child Labor must be given importance and we hope that our rulers must put this agreement into practice using all means at their disposal. At the end Star Welfare Organization members met the parents of these children whose pictures are shown above and gave them awareness that these children are asset of our country we should not destroy them then the parents said what should we do? Because there is lot of dearness, we should eat or to spend money on their studies then welfare said to them that we are having our Madrisa in Yousaf Park Doger Gulzar e Madina in which we gives free of cost residence, clothes, shoes, food and also give them education and told them that already many students are getting benefited from our Madrisa.

WELFARE FOR DISABLED PERSONS In these days our Government is doing a great job for disabled persons he said that these are also special people in our country we Should respect them because they need our attention. Especially doing work for those children who wants to do study. For this all our president took a grate step that he announced that for disable persons there will be a sign on their Identity card which means they will get an aid or some special help from the government of Pakistan. President of star welfare Madam Rifaat Rani said that special children are the nation’s strength and asset and she disagrees to the term special children used for retarded kids. “Instead I love to call them ‘sweet kids for them, to her, have the same potential and talent like other normal people in the society”, she said while speaking as chief guest in a meeting. The ceremony was organized in collaboration with magazine “Special Children” to promote self-esteem, independence. And selfdetermination in the retarded children. Special children have the ability to do each and every thing like a normal human being. “Special children are like a real pearl which is never round, it has rough edges.”

The development of special education network in historical perspective and the nature and quality of services being offered to special children in Pakistan has been studied and evaluated in this research work. The measures for improvement have also been recommended. To achieve this various instruments were designed. The interviews of the special educators, support professionals, parents of special children and special persons were conducted. The records of the schools were consulted. The samples were taken from rural as well as urban areas of Pakistan and all the provinces. The research work includes the analysis of historical pattern of development of special schools for all major categories of special children in Pakistan and the provinces.

The separate graphs and charts showing trends and of development and distribution in each region )Pakistan as a whole, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, North West Frontier Provinces and Federal Capital Area) and for each sector (Federal Government, Provincial Government and Non-government Sectors) and for each category (Hearing impaired, visually impaired, Mentally retarded and physically handicapped) are drawn. The analysis of population of special people and schools-age special children and the special children

studying in schools has also been carried out. The areas focused for investigating the weaknesses and strengths of the infrastructure include early intervention programmes, educational assessment and placement procedure, availability of special teachers and support professionals, Special educational needs, system of examination and evaluation, teachers training programmes, main reaming, provisions in government policies and legislation. The special schools system evolved in Pakistan as early as first decade of twentieth century however the schools are not in sufficient numbers to cater all the special children. The early intervention programmes in Pakistan are not very well organized the assessment procedures at schools have been discussed and there is a great room for improvement. The assessment tools need to be standardized for which government support is required. The special needs including equipment and books are not available in sufficient quantity. Most of the schools follow curriculum designed by committees comprising of teachers of special schools under the guidance of National Institute of Special Education. The instructional approaches and strategies are diversified which is common in all countries. The minimum qualification for any professional related to special education is not defined. The average student’s teacher ratio ranges from 6 to 1 in some categories of special children to 11 to 1 in the other which indicates the shortage of teachers. The parent involvement in the education of special children is the least. The vast majority of parents of special children of all categories

and special persons are not fully satisfied with the education being given to their children. The associations of the special people, specially visually impaired and hearing impaired and physically handicapped have played a pivotal role in changing the lives of the special people in Pakistan. The role of non-government organizations (NGO) is very significant in the development of special education in Pakistan. The facilities to support higher education for special people in colleges and universities are not available. The mainstream schools do not have teachers and equipment to accommodate special children. The long term planning is required to mainstream special children. There will be financial implications also to implement any such scheme. The teacher training programmers offered by universities and other institutions are quite satisfactory. The universities offer Diploma, Masters Degree and Ph.D. programmers in special education. Many other non-government and government organizations offer in-service teacher training programmers. The policy for the Education and Rehabilitation of special children has not yet been finalized. The vocational training being provided in most of the school is of pre-vocational nature. The trades are limited. The parents and special persons are not fully satisfied with the provisions of vocational training facilities. The attention of government is required to vamp this area.

Taking these views of President and

Government Star Welfare called a meeting in the office in which all the members of the organization came. In this meeting President of Star Welfare Organization Madam Rifaat Rani and G Secretary Shafiq Doger discussed with all the members of the organization that we should give awareness to the all the peoples and for this we have to go door to door and told people that if they will find any kind of disable person they should make a contact with us, so that we can able to do help for them. After visiting to the people in different areas people appreciate the steps which have taken the Star Welfare on the guide line of our government. After this many cases came to our organization in which

(1)Arslan ahmad 13 year old who is having a polio from residence chak # 136SB sillawali they aresix family members and belong to a poor family.

(2)Rehmat bibi 67 year old lady from chak # 136 SB silawali living alone and having polio from both legs and having no income source.(3)Kinza daughter of M Rafique and just one year old she is also having a polio and her parents are poor they are three family members because of disabling her parents are very worried and they want help for their baby. (4)Emtal bibi 40 year old belongs to 121 NB tehsil silawali District sargodha and having polio they are 7 members of family and very poor.(5)Humza shehbaz is 9 year old and having a polio residence 136 NB chak silawali they are 7 members of a family his parents are very worried and need help for him.(6)Adeel Ahmad 16 years old having polio belongs to Mohammad Aziz park he is unmarried and they are 12 family members and poor and needs a help because he may not able to do work. .(7)Kamran Ijaz 13 years old and his right hand is disable and belongs to chak# 108 Sargodha they are 5 family members and because of poverty he is not getting education and spending very pitiable life and need a help for her better future.(8)Rasat Ali 18 years old belong to chak no 21 NB Silanwali and they are 7 family members and having polio. He is too young and not able to do a work and earn money for his future so he is waiting for the help from different sources. (9)Abid Ali 20 years old belongs to chak # 136 S.B Silanwali and having polio and he is a son of poor parents and not doing anything so that’s why his parents are very worried about him.

After getting all the reports and cases from different areas we decided that we should help them in different ways all the members appreciated this view and said we should do something for these kinds of people and will continue this work. • Continue…… Star welfare organization. Websites (www.strawelfare.org) (www.starwelfare.wordpress.com) Account# MCB Fatima Jinnah Road Sargodha Pakistan 12420101001828-1 Mob# 0321-6001323 ph# 048-3717220