“PAKISTAN’S FUTURE ON STREETS” – BY: AMNA BINT-E-FAYYAZ
Pakistan, the country having 64% percent of young population .At present, 64% percent of the nation is younger than the age of 30 and the 29% percent of Pakistanis are between the age of 15 and 29 and right now Pakistan has more young people than it has ever had, and this is predicted to continue to raise until at least 2050 (UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS 2018).
According to the latest survey 1.2 to 1.5 million children in Pakistan are on streets. About 3.3 million of Pakistani children are trapped in child labor. Currently, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children, As estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 are out-of-school (UNICEF). We flex about being the fifth youngest country of the world but, is it really a good news? or an alarming situation, is our youth really a bright future or one of the biggest challenge and menace for Pakistan’s future. We have just celebrated 74th independence day of Pakistan but we are still failed to provide the basic necessities to its most of the citizens.
The children on street face the harshest realities of life, exploitation, humiliation, violation, trafficking, sexual abuse and what not they spend a traumatize life. Childhood which is consider as the most sensitive period of life, the age in which a child get the most love, care and affection, but the childhood of street children is far away from all these delightful words and feelings rather they stumble on roads in search of livelihood to feed themselves and their family or sometimes they just wander on the roads with empty stomach, tattered clothes in search of food and shelter and it leads them to the worst events and happenings of their lives.
These little poor, vulnerable and defenseless innocent souls get abused and face exploitation in all possible ways physically, emotionally, mentally, verbally and most of the times it leads them to join criminal groups or they get used as a drug traffickers or forced into begging by the beggar mafia. Female children are approximately 8% of the total and most of them get sold off into prostitution. All in all we are miserably failed to protect the children and future of Pakistan
The situation is very heart wrenching and trembling, if we will not do anything to bring betterment in their lives the situation will get worse and it won’t let Pakistan to grow. The main problem is that they aren’t getting any education which will increase illiteracy in Pakistan and in future they will not be able to give themselves their family and Pakistan a healthy future.
As a student I have an idea through which we can provide them education that too from the university students for free. Millions of students are studying in universities of Pakistan and with the coordination of universities we will be able to increase the literacy rate of Pakistan and can provide the good future or at least try to make these poor street children stand on their feet and make their future better.
The government should do an agreement with the universities in order to end the illiteracy and provide the better future to the children. Government should allot bunch of street children to every university, and as a part of a degree, students have to teach them under the university guardianship. As a youth of Pakistan I know how enthusiastic our young generation is in order to contribute for the development and growth of Pakistan and to help people.
Few days back I read an article about the “Quaidian tutors”, they are the students of Quaid-E-Azam university who provide tutoring service free of cost to the children who belongs to lower socio-economic groups and we also have an example where the students of Karachi university took the slum children into the class room. They made a makeshift school. The children, who used to beg in front of Karachi university gate, were able to gain education in same place and it would not have been possible without the passion and determination of the students of KU university. To enlighten the street children with education there is an institute named as literacy centre where the students of arid agriculture university Rawalpindi voluntarily teach the poor children.
The students of Pakistan are willing to provide education and help the deprived children of Pakistan but not each one of us can reach out to street children and gather them in a certain place and educate them. If government and universities of Pakistan take this initiative to give university students this opportunity of teaching the street children and play their role in making Pakistan’s future literate and bright, I am sure our youth our students will give their best to serve these poor and innocent street children of Pakistan.
