While children in the West are trying to fake illnesses to get out of school and stay at home to play games on their personal devices, children in Pakistan dream of going to school but are forced into hard labor to make ends meet. About 9.7 million families in Pakistan live below the poverty line and have to make a heartbreaking decision of either feeding or educating their child.
Extreme poverty compels families to keep their children at home to help with farm work and other income-generating activities. Deprived of education, more than 12.5 million of these children aged 10-14 find themselves engaged in exploitative and hazardous labor. From working with infected needles without gloves in a cramped room to running around cities to deliver products without even five minutes to catch their breaths, children are forced to lead lives filled with harm and discontent.
Although both boys and girls are locked out of education and pushed further into abysmal poverty, girls are disproportionately affected. By grade six, 59% of girls are already out of school, versus 49% of boys.
These unfortunate girls pulled out of schools are then forced into early marriages with men more than twice their age. They are often subjugated to domestic abuse, mistreatment, and are expected to become mothers. Often suffering from life-threatening birth complications such as fistulas. Many of the infants are birthed with both low birth weight and stunted growth. Which is one of the many reasons why Pakistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world.
Providing high-quality education and support is vital to break this cycle of misery and saving millions of innocent souls from a future we would dread for our own children!
The biggest obstacles to promote education in Pakistan are poverty, lack of both structural and systematic infrastructure, and society’s patriarchal attitude. Which ties young women down with the expectations of a submissive, domestic lifestyle.
