That is the sobering fact that we do not love our children the way parents should, in the natural order
ISLAMABAD: With reference to the increasing cases of child labour (especially domestic labour) and torture on children in forced servitude, I wish to highlight just one factor, among many, contributing to the neglect of Pakistani children. That is the sobering fact that we do not love our children the way parents should, in the natural order. If we loved, protected and cared for our children as we should, no level or quantum of poverty, unemployment, hunger, destitution, or ignorance would serve as an excuse, rationale or “justification” for the increasing practice of selling, trafficking, pledging, bonding, indenturing, prostituting, filming, disfigurement, labour, enslavement and abandonment of Pakistani children, initially by their parents — not even in the remotest feudal, tribal, orthodoxy-ridden, poverty-stricken rural hinterland or in the urban slums. Children are voiceless and powerless. Hence, if parents do not, cannot, or will not love and protect their children, then we demand that the State must do so — “riyasat hogi maa ki jaisi” — so the State must become the Guardian (wali) of all such children and take on the responsibility of children’s fundamental right to life and dignity, as well as to child survival, protection, development, physical and mental health, and education needs (Constitution Article 25-A).
Tahira Abdullah
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2017.
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