Education as a key solution to combating child labour Where most of the children grow up while wishing for a new model of racing car or a new doll house, there are many children in Pakistan who wish for nothing but a normal childhood and quality education in order to pursue their passion in life! Child labour is one the emerging probelems in pakistan that require an immediate solution. Child labour as basically when children under the legal age of working are forced to leave their house and go out to work so that they can feed their families which forsure is not their job! According to the The Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2017-18 reported 13.7 per cent of children aged 10-17 years as being engaged in child labour. Of them, around 5.4 per cent were involved in hazardous child labour and this number makes it clear this problem needs to taken care of. Katherene Russel once said “Every problem has a solution it may sometimes just need another perspective”. Education is considered to be the key solution to this problem but many educational strategies are restricted to creating educational opportunities for the children only while ignoring the fact that the mentality of the parents and the adults is the root to this issue. Educational opportunities are not only provided to the children but their elders as well in order to teach them that these little souls deserve to sit on the chair in a classroom and get involved in learning something new everyday rather than getting involved in the manufacturing of the chairs or the construction of the classrooms. As a result of the alarming economic situation of Pakistan many parents, especially in rural areas, have the vision that a child who brings a few rupees home every evening is better than the one who spends 12 years getting education, getting a job and then bringing them the money. This vision needs to be changed and for this it is necessary to create awareness among the families of these children regarding the consequences of child labour and preventing children from getting the basic education. This can be done by the government and the volunteers to visit these areas and enlighten the parents about the pros of educations and the cons of child labour. Furthermore, in order for the awareness activity to be successful, the government and NGOs can provide the families with basic life needs such as ration so that the children are not forced to earn. Once the families are successfully educated regarding the the importance of education and consequences of child labour, next step is to create educational opportunities for the children. Paying the fee of the schools is one of the greatest concerns for the parents therefore schools can be set up in rural areas where education is free for all. Furthermore the NGOs can contribute in providing basic educational facilities to the students so that getting education does not feel like a burden. Another point that needs to be focused on is that education should be provided to all and not only boys as in Pakistan there exists a high gender inequality. Therefore, by educating the families first and the children can help Pakistan in getting rid of a disastrous nightmare called “Child labour”.
