By Rashid Ali Panhwer
Pakistan has recently seen a high rising trend in child sale by parents. Poor people are using this technique as a new invention for addressing the problems of poverty and sufferings. Apart from deep rooted culture of compensation for marriage of female children or women in rural parts of the country, trade of children by criminal mafias and renting of children by drug addict parents for begging and child labor; a new scenario has emerged and accumulating strength where impoverished parents look for buyers of their own children.
On September 16, 2009 a father Mohammad Ayub reached Miran Mohammad Shah road near Hyderabad Press Club to sell his 11 years old daughter “Sameea”. He had the little girl in lap having a placard in her hand, which read “5 daughter and two sons for sale”. Many people gathered to enquire about the matter. On that juncture, he told journalists that he had come to sell his daughter, because of poverty, starvation and unemployment he could not arrange two time meals for his children. He said “ I was a WAPDA employee but was forcefully fired, I am unemployed for last two years and now sale bottles and earn Rs.150 daily which is insufficient amount to feed my children, I can’t see them starved. He asserted “ Now Eid ( a religious celebration) is approaching, my children urge me for clothes and other things but I can’t arrange to purchase for their basic necessities, now I don’t have a penny, what can I do?. He threatened “ I shall sale or slaughter my children and kill myself if I was not given gain full employment.” It further came to light that Mohammad Ayub lives with his seven minor children in a small shop type shelter.
Only two days later on September 18 an employee of Technical College Hyderabad reached at the same spot to showcase his two children for sale. Shop Assistant Shehzad Ghori brought his 6 years old son Safdar and 3years old daughter Umme Roma displaying a “Children for Sale” placard. He was protesting against College administration. He said “ My wife is suffering from Tuberculosis, I have small children, I even can’t afford medicines for my wife and food for my children and college administration has cut my salary for absence, instead of providing any relief.
Few months back Madadgar (Helpline) caught a couple of parents who had sold their children in the jurisdiction of Police Station Zaman Town Karachi. The mother of children confessed that due severe poverty she sold her four minor children to different people last year. However, she was in search of another customer for her another younger daughter.
In May this year, many clerks of Punjab province recorded their protest and put their children on token sale. The clerks beat their chests and pulled their hair exclaiming that the Punjab government had decided to deprive them of their jobs, following that they would not be able to bring up their children.
Last year also witnessed a number of such cases. Media reported that a father in Larkana sold his son for Rs50, 000 to pay for his mother's treatment. Now, his son is exploited in melas and dances in festivals.
A man namely Lal Bux alias Lalan Laghari belonging to village Mohammad Bux Laghari near Moro along with his seven minor children reached Moro town on September 19, 2008 and appealed to people to buy his children or help him in getting a job. He said that after passing matriculation he had tried several times to get a job but could not find one. He said he had been suffering from kidney problem. Lalan Laghari brought his minor children, 1 year old Najeeb, Ayaz, 2; Waqar, 3; Ghulam Qambar, 5; Ghulam Jafar, 6; Awais, 8 and baby Kawish, 7-- to Moro Press Club carrying banner inscribed with “my children are available for sale”.
Another person Ghulam Rasool, who used to be an in police department, arrived at Hyderabad Press Club with his three children offering for sale. He said that being jobless after being sacked, he had been unable to find employment, and it became impossible for him to support subsistence of his family.
The new wave of selling children in public actually started when a woman namely Aisha rushed to Hyderabad’s Resham Bazar with a placard in hand, inscribed with the phrase “Children for sale”. While weeping before journalists at Hyderabad Press Club she said, “These are not toys that a mother would sale them. There must be something behind it which brought me to this stage in life”. When she was criticized on her unkind act she added,“Why didn’t the society react when my kids were crying out of hunger and I had no place to take shelter”. She asserted that she was unable to take care of her children as her husband was imprisoned in Sukkur jail. She was demanding justice for her husband.
She was a resident of Ghotki district and was married to 55 years old Haneef when she was 12 years old. She had 5 children from Hanif. She got divorce and married to another person Zahid Malik . She had one child from her second husband. Later her husband was arrested in 3 cases of robbery and theft.
A human rights organization took her to Karachi where her basic needs were taken care of in a shelter home till her husband was released on bail. The organization also provided free legal aid in her husband’s case. After this case the incidents of children’s sell by parents reached a new impetus.
When children begin to develop sense of security their first imagination does not go beyond their own parents. They feel secure in lap of their parents and forget every danger of this world. They develop a belief in early life that their parents would safeguard them from every threat including humiliation. But unfortunately the new culture of child sell is undermining this relationship of inborn trust.
Two aspects of this new emerging picture are overwhelmingly evident. Some parents make real attempts of selling their children secretly while others make symbolic protest against poverty, unemployment and government’s irresponsiveness through their children’s sale offer in public. The observed cases manifest that parents who really want to sale their children don’t want to go public and make such trades a secret; while those willing to make government and society realize their condition in a more impressive manner, commit to make a road show of child sale for getting proper attention from both government and society in order to attract and muster immediate relief.
Both these intentions are equally humiliating and damaging for any society because children are tender creatures, they are human beings and have rights. The growing incidents of child sale offer by poor citizens, is a matter of deep concern for every tender heart. We all have the responsibility of providing them with care and respect. Child sale is prohibited in UN Convention on the Rights of Child, Constitution of Pakistan, Islamic Laws and other laws of Pakistan. It is an act against humanity but it is still prevalent throughout the country.
Despite the fact of being compelled by poverty, parents don’t have any right to sale their children. There is a dire need for evolving a mechanism to save our society from originating culture of child sale in its new form and all other conventional forms. There must be basic support structures and safety nets in place for poor people in order to make all those parents accountable and punishable who set their children on auction without staking the fate and future of children in question. All that is the ultimate responsibility of the government and the government has yet to take steps for eradicating this evil. It demands timely response from all stakeholders including government, civil society and common citizens before society becomes accustomed and extend social acceptance to this situation on the basis of compassion.
