Teach the minors
By: Muhammad Tashfeen
Tags: Child Begar, Leadership, Responsibility, Child Labor, Education

Problem Statement:

“Due to a lack of awareness among parents and children, children are forced to beg and work instead of pursuing education”

Since my childhood, I have seen my children working on streets, roads, trains and shops instead of pursuing basic education. But I never focused on that problem just like most of us do. That is why, this problem has become so common that whenever we see a child working on a shop, begging on roads, polishing shoes in trains and as a vendor in streets, we don’t think why this is happening and what we can do to solve this problem. Most of us have also noticed them working late at night instead of being on their bed so that they can go to school on time. But school is something unknown to them. Most of them have passion and talent to do great in education but they are forced to do all this. One of the reasons of child labor and child beggars is that they have no parents and relatives that can guide them or support them to fulfill their education. So, they have no option left instead of living in streets, begging on roads and working hard on shops & hotels facing harsh behavior of owners. It is a well know quote,

“A child is meant to learn, not to earn.”

Child Labor

Child Beggar

So, who is responsible for all this? Is there something that we can do to eliminate this culture? What is the solution to this problem? All these questions bother me, and I want you all to think about the answers. Meanwhile I would like to share my most recent experience of child labor. Right after my final exams of 5th semester in Mechanical Engineering at UET Lahore, we were asked to vacate the hostel and make our way towards home due to 3rd layer of Covid 19. I opted for a train to travel to my home as I feel convenient in trains than in buses. When I was on my way to home, there comes a child in my compartment, asking for people to let him polish their shoes for just 10 rupees. His age was around 12 years. He was carrying a bag having some brushes and polishes. The man sitting beside me took some pity on him and let him polish his shoes. While he was polishing his shoes, the man asked him how much money does he make in a day. The child replied him that there is no fixed amount but yes, he earns as much as Allah has written in his fate. His answer shocked everyone sitting there and everyone admired his answer. He said he works the whole day in trains from one station to anther as he had no home. He was using a cheap polish so there was no shine on the shoes he was polishing. The man asked him why he is using a cheap polish. He replied that he charges only 10 rupees for couple of shoes, why you are expecting too much from such a little money. Once again, his answer was admirable. The men around me gave him some tips that could help him making more money a day. Karl Menninger once said,

“What’s done to children they will do to society.”

Child Polishing Shoes at Railway Station

Here comes the question what can I do to solve this problem? To solve any problem, we must know the reason behind that problem. In this case, we can spread awareness among the parents to let their children study and not opt for labor. In case, the children have no parents or guardians we can talk directly to the children and convince them to pursue education instead of working on roads and streets. We can tell them the benefits of pursuing education, the long-term benefits. They would say that they don’t have enough money to survive in these situations, how they can waste their time in studies? We can convince them by saying that, we ensure you will be getting scholarship to continue your studies and stipend to survive in your harsh conditions. If scholarship and stipend is given to them, I am sure that their parents would allow them to pursue education. It is a well know quote,

“Educated childhood will ensure economic development.”

Educating the Minors

Further, we will ensure that we will give an honorable part time work to the child along with his studies so that he can earn and gain some real-world experience. In this way we can provide our country with educated and experienced child that will improve the economy and provide employment by starting their business instead of beggars and labors that work on streets and roads and proves to be a burden for the country.

Showcase the talent of minors

Through this experience, we will acquire the qualities like leadership without authority and taking responsibility when everyone is waiting for someone to come and take that responsibility, identification of problem and refining the solutions. No one will ask us to do this, we have to take the responsibility as we are responsible for the good and bad of others around us and we will be asked what we have done to help others. We are also a part of this society and everything happening in the society has a direct or indirect effect on us. Either we may ignore such problems and let our society face the consequences or we may find solution to these problems and improve our society. The choice is ours! As Henrik Ibsen said,

“A community is like a ship, everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.”