Education for Girls

Education is a tool that is used in every aspect of life, thus, everyone has the right to be educated and to live the life the way they want to. Similarly, every child has the right to enjoy his/her childhood and get proper education regardless of anything. Since the past couple of days I was observing that children, especially girls under the age of 18 are deprived of education and are working instead.

My thinking process started when I kept a new maid at my house. She used to bring her daughter ‘Sheema’, who was 14 years old, with her from 8 am in the morning till 6pm everyday. I wasn’t surprised to see the little one working as its common in Pakistan, but my curiosity made me ask her mother the reason why Sheema wasn’t given the right of education and childhood fun that she deserved. She replied, “I am not as rich as you are, we need money to survive and this is the only way out. I’m looking for a safe home for Sheema where I can send her as a permanent servant which would allow us to cope up with the increasing prices of everything in Karachi.” It didn’t make sense to me at first but then I asked her several more questions and I found out that her husband didn’t work at all and they had 6 kids at home (Sheema being the eldest). It wasn’t difficult for me to understand the reason then and I quiet agreed to the solution my maid had thought of.

             However, other reasons that I found out from my friends maids, who were working as baby sitters and full time servants at home, were hard to digest. According to them, their parents didn’t like the idea of educating their daughters and giving them liberty. Their parents thought that education is not necessary for them and that it would do nothing but spoil their children.

            Federal Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education Samina Khalid Ghurki in her keynote said that the survival, development and protection of children are the foundations of human kind. “Children deserve our attention and allocation of resources for their better and protected future.” Children are innocent; they need proper guidance and deserve their rights no matter how ever the conditions of their families are. If we can’t change the thinking and economy of Pakistan, we can at least try and do our best to provide the kids what we have by educating them. That’s the least we can do.