WUNRN
Rag
pickers are those who pick scraps or waste items from the city dumps, garbage
bins, road sides and drains. Hanging a jute or plastic bag on their shoulder,
they go around in certain pockets in the busy city areas from early morning to
mid night to collect such materials. They walk around barefoot and without
gloves to handle the garbage and search for recyclable items like iron,
bottles, electric bulbs, cartoon, polythene bags, plastic materials, tin etc. The
working condition is hazardous and unhygienic.
______________________________________________________________________
PAKISTAN - CHILD LABOUR RAG PICKERS
NEED PROTECTION - GIRLS
November 20, 2009
PAKISTAN: Child Ragpickers Should Get Protection
Universal Child Day is being celebrated by the international community, including Pakistan, on 20th November. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was signed on 20th November 1989, and so far the Convention has been ratified by 191 nation states. This day is a reminder for us to review our commitments and action for the protection and promotion of child rights.
Despite the ratification of UN CRC, successive Pakistani governments have failed to protect the future generation of the country. Therefore, abuse, neglect, and discrimination against children are widespread in the country.
Child labor is quite common and recognized as a serious problem in Pakistan. It is entirely difficult to present accurate figures of the child workforce; there is little doubt that child labor has assumed massive proportions in Pakistan. The actual total number of working children in Pakistan is probably somewhere between 2 and 19 million.
Child labor has been legislated against in several international conventions, most notably the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, which the Pakistani government ratified in 1990. There have also been several relevant pieces of national legislation enacted to protect the children.
The International Labour Organisation defines child labour as “work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children” (Article 3(d) Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (Number 182) 1999).
The exploitative practice of child labor has been recognized as one of the major socio-economic problems in Pakistan. Certainly, Child labor seriously jeopardizes children's prospects for a better future. No doubt children’s are involved in all forms of labor however in Karachi, the largest commercial city of the Pakistan, children’s engagement in rag picking is a common phenomenon.
Rag picking is one of the worst forms of child labor, and it is roughly estimated that more than 20,000 children are working as rag pickers in Karachi. Salman Mukhtar, General Secretary Initiator Human Development Foundation (IHDF), said that one can spotted these children at dumpsites, or in residential areas while collecting paper, plastics, and bottles, cardboard, tin, iron, and used syringes. He added that rag pickers get paid according to the quality of the materials they sell to middlemen or garbage collection centers.
They usually collect trash between 10 kilogram and 30 kilogram and spend 8 to 12 hours on the streets. They have very little earning to feed themselves and their families. It was informed that children of Afghan refugees are mostly working as rag pickers in Karachi. “When I don’t have money, I borrowed money from the owner of trash collector. He never refused to give me money and in return I have no choice but to sell all my trash to him on below market prices,” Noor Khan, a twelve year old rag picker informed. Not only Noor Khan but many rag pickers are under heavy debt and they are working in a bonded labor like situation.
Article 32 of CRC says: "State Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development".
Mr. Salman Mukhtar of IHDF observed that rag pickers children are vulnerable to all sorts of violence, abuse and discrimination. As, these children spend a considerable amount of time on the streets and without any adult supervision, they are generally harassed by the public and particularly by the police.
Gul Kareem, a ten year old rag picker, informed that, “police harassment is a routine episode for us and without any charges they search our sacks and sometime beat us severely. They demand money and even sexual favor; once on refusal they confined my friend for two days and perpetuated physical torture on him.”
Advocate Mohammad Hanif observed that rag pickers children are highly vulnerable to human and citizen rights abuses. He informed that the Constitution of Pakistan states: "No child below the age of fourteen, shall be engaged in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous employment." Also, "All forms of forced labor and traffic in human beings are prohibited." He told that a number of laws contain provisions prohibiting child labor or regulating the working conditions of child and adolescent workers; however, child rag pickers are not legally protected.
Dr. Iqra Raheem, a local Pediatrician, believed that due to their lifestyle these children are exposed to scabies, malaria, skin diseases and other health problems. There risk of falling ill is very high as they work in unhygienic, conditions and consume unhealthy food and Water. Additionally, their exposure to syringes puts them at risk of contracting infections like Hepatitis or HIV/AIDS. She suggested that hospitals, especially those running under government control, should adopt a comprehensive solid waste management policy.
Mr. Imdad Hussain, Program Officer in an environment focused NGO, observed that rag pickers provide a crucial support, to the city district government, in managing solid waste in Karachi. Though, we have never done any estimation to gauge the percentage of solid waste manage by the child rag pickers but it is assumed that they handle and dispose of at least 12 percent of solid waste. These services allow the city district government to save a huge amount of money they would have to bear the cost and time of collecting solid waste.
The government has not recognized this as a priority issue, while very few citizen sector organizations are working on the issue of rag pickers in Pakistan. However, organizations working for child rag pickers clearly lacks understating about their problems and needs; therefore, actions that have been introduced to address the problems of child rag pickers have had very little impact so far. There is a dire need to understand the issue in totality and device strategies to tackle the problem effectively. _______________________________________________________________
http://www.hope-afar.org/?q=node/9
NUMBER
OF RAGPICKERS IN PAKISTAN RISES DUE TO
GROWING POVERTY &
HUNGER - MOST ARE CHILDREN
PAKISTAN:
The number of ragpickers in Pakistan is on the rise due to growing poverty,
hunger and joblessness. Presently more than 35,000 ragpickers, the majority of
them children, earn their livelihood by lifting some 3,000 tons of garbage
daily, out of 8,000 tons of litter generated by the city.
It is said
that these rag pickers are amongst the most neglected segment of society,
suffering from tuberculosis, asthma, cough, skin diseases, allergies and other
contagious diseases. Scavenger children living on the streets of Pakistan [of
whom many are Afghan refugees] have no access to health, education and
juvenile justice.
One child
relates: “the police often pick us up and beat us under suspicion of
drug-trafficking, while people in [wealthy] areas do not allow us to pass
through their streets, saying we smell bad,” a teenage ragpicker said.
Criminals and contractors often snatch our earnings, he added.
“Would
seminaries like to improve their image by providing food or shelter now that
they are being falsely accused of terrorism?” asked Save the Children (UK), an
NGO. “People will support seminaries that provide shelter to homeless street
children.”
In an
analysis published in 2007, the NGO showed that 8,000 to 10,000 children are
working as rag pickers in Quetta, many of whom are either migratory or roaming.
“Poverty
is the driving force, followed by domestic, physical and mental abuse, along
with peer pressure and drug abuse, that pushes children to begin life on the
streets as scavengers,” said Society for the Protection of the
Rights of the Child (SPARC) Representative Salim Dharejo. He says that the
phenomenon of rag pickers poses a complex social challenge.
Scavengers
are at the mercy of criminals, police, drug addicts, smugglers and an unhealthy
living environment, making them vulnerable to different diseases, including
sexually transmitted diseases, exploitation and abuse, he added.
It is
believed that over 70,000 children live on the streets across the country, many
of whom survive on rag picking. Tuberculosis (TB) and skin diseases continue to
persist among these children.
Initiator
Human Development Foundation President Rana Asif Habib said that “nearly 90 percent of these street
children become victims of sexual abuse,” he said. On 931
points across the city, including traffic police intersections, street children
peddle or beg, he added.
Street
children can be divided into two major groups, one that lives on the streets
all day and night and the other that works for 12 hours then sleeps at the
contractor’s dera (a temporary home), he said. “A third group are rag pickers,
who following ‘paternal will’ or are compelled to survive on scavenging,” said
Habib.
If a
rag-picking child has family in Quetta for instance, all his earning goes to
his''''''''''''''''/her family, just like children in fishing families. If s/he
has no house in the city, contractors snatch the lion’s share of his earnings,
observed Habib.
“Dera
in-charges (contractors)
and kabaris (junk sellers) torture rag pickers badly when they leave them to
join other contractors. Major sanitation drains of the city are torture cells
for these unfortunate souls. They are hung upside down, naked and beaten
severely,” Habib disclosed.
“The
Bagri tribe are nomads who have migrated from Rohri and Quetta and live near
Kalapul, Chanesar Halt and Manghopir. They are involved in kidnapping disabled
children from different parts of the country,” said Habib, adding that a
disabled child beggar earns Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 daily for his contractors.
“Some mafia rackets use
street and scavenger children for drug trafficking and as male prostitutes
near bus and truck stands and railway stations. There are many NGOs in Quetta,
and throughout Pakistan, but none of them show any practical results for these
children.
He said that
some children used to sell some items at traffic signals, but are now involved
in cell phone and purse snatching or picking pockets, after the construction of
many flyovers in the city.
Pakistan
"Dawn" 05/09/2008
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