Plight of child jockeys

The story of 19-year-old Shakil who has yet to overcome the trauma he endured as a camel jockey in a Gulf state years ago was just one of the disturbing stories of the 200 of 1,200 boys returned to Rahim Yar Khan in deplorable conditions years ago. They have yet to find their footing in life. Shakil attends school but lags behind and is in class eight. A physician at a nearby district who treats former child jockeys says many of them suffer from mental health issues due to having been exposed to trauma at the hands of their employers in Gulf states. This is despite the passing of laws that banned the use of child jockeys in the early 2000s and even though, in 2002, Pakistan ratified the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance which banned the trafficking of children into the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations. Yet, this practice continues to date, especially from southern Punjab, with the main motivation being dire economic conditions which force parents to send their children abroad.

A politician familiar with the area and the lucrative trade said in a report on May 8 that despite his best efforts, he was unable to put an end to this menace because parents send their children “for the sake of money”. Clearly, there is an economic aspect to this issue but whose job is it to ensure that a child is adequately looked after and not pawned off by its parents? Once a child is sent abroad, he has no representation whatsoever as his embassy is, sadly, of little to no use and there is no access to legal recourse. In such matters, the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau should be called on to protect and care for children and see to it that they stay in Pakistan at all costs. There is also a matter of compensation owed to former child jockeys by the UAE government from 2008. It would be good if someone in officialdom could see to it that these poor families get the claims so that they can gain some semblance of a normal life.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2013.