Child Labour
- Hussain Siddiqui, Islamabad

IT was heart rendering to see pictures of children that appeared in national Press on October 28, contributing, in their own style, towards rebuilding of their collapsed homes in Muzaffarabad, as a consequence of devastating earthquake.

In one picture, three boys of ages between four to nine years are carrying construction bricks on their heads, burden of which is explicitly reflected from their faces.

In another, two girls and a kid of even younger ages, carry, though cheerfully, heavy bricks on their heads and in hands. Many of us, like me, were shocked to see these innocents involved in child labor, given the present circumstances and conditions in the area.

Incidentally, the same day President Musharraf has ordered immediate release of two billion rupees for reconstruction of houses in the quake-affected areas on modern lines, ensuring quake resistant infrastructure. But will the survivors wait –or could wait—so long, winter already setting in?

If it will be a long drawn process, as it is envisaged, not many of the people would wait for the reconstruction efforts by the government agencies, and would be constrained to resort to self-help to repairing or rebuilding their permanent shelters.

And who else but their children would be engaged for construction, as depicted in these pictures, enduring physical burden and pain on the poor kids who have already suffered long and severally.

Is this the way we are going to handle reconstruction in the devastated areas?

Perhaps, none of the Pakistanis ever visualized that this could be shape of the things to come as an earthquake aftermath that has attracted huge financial and physical resources for reconstruction, domestically as well as internationally.

Bemusing as it is, could government take notice on priority to address the issue in real earnest?●

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