Children of Thar losing everything, even their dreams

By Hameed Diplai

THE spectres of poverty, disease, hunger and illiteracy haunt the parched expanse of Thar. Mass
migrations, necessitated by recurring drought spells, have been a way of life in the area for the
past many years. Prolonged shortage of food and fodder forces people to migrate towards more
fertile areas near the barrages and canals.

According to An Assessment of Drought 2000, a survey conducted by the Thar Rural

Development Programme, over 70 per cent of the Tharis are said to be on the move to escape
death.

Earlier also, the Tharis would do the same thing — leave their homes, whatever these would be,
in the hope to get sustenance. This has been a way of life for the Tharis. In the struggle for
survival, they lose sight of a bitter truth, that the nation’s asset — the children — are exposed to
dual risks: this move put their lives as well as their education at stake.

A large number of families are forced to migrate along with their children and cattle; in other
cases, only the earning members embark upon the journey to the barrage areas leaving behind
their families and children at home. Either way, the children suffer most.

According to the TRDP’s assessment, prolonged drought had forced over 21 per cent of the total
households to migrate with entire families by the end of August, 2002, while the earning hands
of 36 per cent of the families had also left for irrigated areas to seek wage labour to sustain their
families, children and their livestock.

Children — whether they stay behind in Thar or move along with their families towards their
newly-adopted homes in the more fertile areas — have to say goodbye to their education besides
engaging themselves in some income-generating activities.

These children lose not only their education but also their health also deteriorates because of the
heavy work they have to endure. One of their responsibilities, in addition to earn something for
their families, include fetching water from the deep wells located far from their homes. They
have to do it for their families as well as the well being of the animals they own.

Pulling up water from the deep wells is a gruelling experience for adults. It places a huge burden
in physical and financial terms. In the first place they need to buy the ‘koss’ (the rubber bucket,
made specially for fetching water from these wells) and the ‘wart’ (a long rope, connected at one
end to the ‘koss’ and at the other end it is either tied to the necks of donkeys or to the hands of
the person holding the ‘koss’).

Most of the well in Thar are extraordinarily deep and require the availability of two donkeys or a
camel to pull the ‘koss’ out of the wells.
The children, in their quest for a few buckets of water, have to travel long distances suffering the
scorching sun besides their tender feet also have to bear the burning sand.

Most of parents prefer their children to engage in carpet weaving industry where they loose their
childhood innocence and smiles. Their health is affected by hard work, lack of basic amenities,
like proper nutrition, ventilation, lighting, seating arrangement and allergens contained in the
carpet weaving material.

These children are also exposed to a large number of diseases, including tuberculosis, which
consequently lead to disabilities such as the loss of sight. Unfortunately, medical facilities are
almost non-existent in their part of the world.

They are also subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of unscrupulous older workers in the carpet
industry.

They also learn to smoke cigarettes and are even led towards drug and narcotic addictions.

In search of earning a few rupees, these cute but poor children, belonging to families not
unfamiliar with the pangs of hunger families, lose everything, including their dreams.

This is the plight of those children who remain behind with the female members of the family.

Their ability to earn decreases with the severity of the drought situation, the decrease in the
availability of food. Weakness leaves them in no position to do anything but the constraints
forced on them by nature forces them to continue whatever they had been doing in an effort to
earn a few more rupees to last them a few more days.

The children, who are part of the mass migrations from the parched Thar areas to the plains of
River Indus, which are a rule rather than exception, also do not fare any better. They also face
the same lack of sustenance, which renders them as unlively as the children left behind with their
families at home.

They have to supplement the efforts of their parents to earn something for their families. In some
cases, they work in local hotels besides engaging in domestic services like cooking, mopping,
sweeping, dish-washing etc.

They have to work for over 15 hours every day to earn a very meagre amount in terms of salary.

Legislation, in other parts of the world as well as in our country, bars children from working
more than seven hours in a day, but who cares?

These little angels of Thar are losing their right to live as well as their right to the joys of
childhood.

Below are the words contained in legislation promulgated by the National Assembly of Pakistan
as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of Children.
The National Assembly of Pakistan passed legislation on child labour in 1999, which improved
upon a previous legislation, stating: “Children should not work for over seven hours per day.”
But the fact remains, legislation without implementation do not in any way redress the problems
faced by majority of the children engaged in odd jobs in the rural as well as urban areas of the
country.

The Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child specifically states:
“State parties recognise the rights of the child to be protected from exploitation and from
performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or interfere with a child’s education or be
harmful to a child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development”.

According to the Article 10 of the International Covenant on Economics, Social and Cultural
Rights 1976: “The state parties to the present covenant recognise that special measures of
protection and assistance of all children and young persons without any discrimination for
reasons of parentage or other conditions.

Children and the youth should be protected from economic and social exploitation. Their
employment in work harmful to their morals or health or dangerous to life or likely to hamper
their normal development should be punishable by law.”

The Sindh Children Act 1955 provides for the care and protection of children in the province, but
all these legislations and regulations fail to protect children from the hazardous conditions they
have to face at their respective places of work.

In most parts of the country, children depend upon their families for their well being, but the
situation in Thar is a bit different. Here, the children are responsible for family survival. They
have no choice and or voice in this.

Though parents rely on children but in spite of that they do not endow them with education and
health amenities. All this is happening because the children’s lack of political powers. Therefore,
their opinion carries little weight.

No one has a few moments to spare for these blameless angels of Thar.

The plight of the children of THar needs to be addressed on a war footing otherwise it would
pose a great risk to their health, raising the incidence of child mortality.

We, as a nation, cannot afford to give up on them. We, as a nation, should strive to create a
healthy atmosphere for the development of these vulnerable Thari children.

The words of two world legends — former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela and
former minister of education of Mozambique Graca Machel — should serve as the nation’s guide
in their resolve to make the country a better place for the children:

“You are the focus of our outrage, just as you are the focus of our hopes. You are our only
children, our only link to the future.

“Each one of you is your own person, endowed with rights, worthy of respect and dignity. Each
one of you deserves to have the best possible start in life, to complete a basic education of the
highest quality, to be allowed to develop your full potential and provide the opportunities for
meaningful participation in your communities.

“And until every one of you, no matter who you are, enjoys your rights, I Nelson and I Graca
will not rest. This is our promise.” (These words were spoken on the occasion of the Global
Partnership for Children).

Countless eyes of children of Thar have become devoid of dreams and yet these very eyes seem
to inquire from conscientious persons: “Is there anyone, who focuses on the plight of colourless
life of the children of Thar”?

Published in Daily Dawn

November 11, 2002