Refuse to be defeated

Pictorial Editorial

Asem Mustafa Awan: The three siblings on the donkey cart are the trash pickers. They symbolise hope and pain.
Hope: They don’t beg and they don’t steal. They have not given up on life. Instead, they have embraced hard toil for their survival. In them we see the indomitable spirit of millions of children in our society who despite being pushed aside and neglected refuse to give up on life. For these siblings, their most prized possession is their donkey and the cart which are their breadwinners.
Pain: The three children are under the age of ten. They should be in school learning and developing. They should be in the safety of their homes with family and friends. Instead, they are left to toil picking trash to stay alive. Indeed, a painful indictment of our society.
These three siblings forced by the struggles of life have become wise beyond their age. The courage of their inner strength and endeavour is obvious to see.
In the slums of Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of children are forced to become breadwinners for their families using methods and tools which go back centuries. Every one of these children have some heart-wrenching stories to tell.
These children, the future of Pakistan, survive on a day-to-day basis picking trash discarded by the rich . They are the victims of the cruel social order that has taken hold in the’ land of the pure’ . They don’t have any identity and they have never seen a school. They are just there and they will fade away with time unfulfilled and un-lived. What a waste!
The plight of these children and others like them who are forced to live in the slums of our beautiful capital and throughout Pakistan demands urgent attention from the policymakers. It is contended that over 220 millions have come to Pakistan from the international donors but millions more joined the poverty line in the past few months with floods and closures of industries.

The government must take action by using the resources at its disposal from the international community to address the plight of these children and their communities. Policies and promises need to be implemented with accountability and transparency. These children and their communities need schools, health facilities, clean water and means to earn their living.
These are not only the areas of deep concern but raise fundamental questions about the effectiveness of government governance. The government may be led to believe that’ all is well’ but the fact remains that ‘ all is not well’.

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.

Photo Credit: Muhammad Iqbal