Facilitate to educate

There are a lot of suggestions on how to eradicate poverty and help the underprivileged survive in these days of rapid inflation and rising poverty.

More popular amongst the various solutions offered is setting up of kitchens in various parts of the city to serve food to the hungry.

All over the city on traffic islands and under overpasses there are rows of the hungry; these people are fed by various charitable organizations and individuals.

Also in many of the Dhabas around the city anyone who wishes to feed the hungry can do so by making payment against the food to be served to the needy who are lining up outside.

Food however is not the only necessity which is in short supply among the needy. For most of middle class and especially the lower middle class families, school fee is a problem that haunts them throughout the year and as the end of month approaches so does the tension with many families struggling to keep up their payments to the schools and save their children from embarrassment if they cannot come up with the required amount in time.

Yes the schools ensure that the child is not only embarrassed but humiliated to put utmost pressure for quick and early payments. This is routine for a young man from Korangi in Karachi whose father is a peon in a government organization. On a salary of just 35 thousand a month it is hard for them to pay ten thousand to the child’s school and also feed this family of five.

The result is delayed payment to the school resulting in the child forced to stand out of his class humiliated before his friends or sent home with the instructions to only come back when he has the right amount. Can you imagine how damaging it is for a sensitive young man whose only sin is that his parents cannot afford to make his school payments in time.

The problems of this young man have compounded with rising inflation, soaring commodity prices and devaluation of the rupee resulting in higher prices of various goods. If he finally gets kicked out of that school, which in these circumstances is almost certain, we will be adding another young man to the long line of disgruntled in the city and there is no telling what path he will choose.

The story of this young man and countless like him demonstrates that of all the instruments that might alleviate poverty the most effective is education. Giving food is a good idea but it does not have such a lasting impact on society as education does. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be our priority.

According to UNICEF, currently, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC) with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, representing 44 percent of the total population in this age group.

In the 5-9 age group, 5 million children are not enrolled in schools and after primary-school age, the number of OOSC doubles, with 11.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10-14 not receiving formal education.

Disparities based on gender, socio-economic status, and geography are significant; in Sindh, 52 percent of the poorest children (58 percent girls) are out of school, and in Balochistan, 78 percent of girls are out of school.

Any idea what these out of school children are doing? Many of the out of school children and especially girls are employed as domestic servants and from what we have been learning from recent news they are suffering exploitation of various kinds, including physical molestation, rape and even torture leading to death.

Those that are not pressed into domestic service are on the streets begging. According to Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the number of children who beg on the streets of urban cities within Pakistan amounts to around 1.2 million. As we all know from our own experience a good number of these are girls who in our own city Karachi can be seen hanging around traffic lights.

We must get our children into schools. This should be a much greater priority than many of the topics that are thrashed to death each night by intellectuals. No child should be humiliated for not being able to pay school fee and there must be a mechanism to take care of those who are willing to learn but do not have the means to attend a proper educational institution.

Maybe each school establish a special fund in which the well to do parents of these institutions contribute and help the less privileged. Rising crime statistics in the city are pointers to the coming disaster. A tsunami of crime and violence awaits us if we do not act now.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023