I received this forward a long time back from a friend (HJ)… An interesting read for anyone who grew up in Pakistan in the 80s/90s.
A “Nostalgist’s Map” of Pakistan/Karachi written from a well-off middle-class point of view. Author Unknown.
Have you lived……from a Karachiwala….
Close your eyes….. And go back in time…. Before the Internet, VCD and DVD. Before semi-automatics machine guns, joyriders and crack …. Before SEGA or Super Nintendo or Video Games… Way back….
I’m talking about Hide and seek (Chhupan Chhupaee) in the park or on the streets. The corner shop, Butter Scotch Candy, Mitchells Milk Toffee,Jubilee, football with an old can, hockey, cricket and Pittu with the same ball. jumping in enormous puddles, Building dams.
The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass. Mayfair bubble gum.A POLKA ice cream pop cone on a warm summer night, Wait……Watching Weekday 5pm evening or Saturday Morning cartoons… short commercials,Tom and Jerry, He-Man, Captain Caveman, Waltron, Walligator, Danger Mouse and Pink Panther.
Continue reading ‘A “Nostalgist’s Map” of Pakistan’
Following on from my brief allusion (here) to camel jockeys - that are enslaved to satisfy the barbaric sporting habits of the rulers of the Middle East, this post concerns another type of slavery- beggary- that is rampant in Pakistan. It also contains a video report on the plight of ‘rat children’ or ‘ chuwas’ [aired by Channel 4 UK].
If you have been on the road of any major city in Pakistan (except Islamabad, from what I can remember) you would have come across hoards of children aged from nearly nothing being exploited for beggary. In the soaring heat of the summer or the chilly nights of the winter they stand at traffic junctions, some being carried by their ‘beggar mothers’ [most likely sold to ‘beggar masters’ by their biological parents or even kidnapped].
Continue reading ‘The forgotten slave children: the beggars and the ‘chuwas’’
NGOnet for Women and Children’s Rights documentary is a short 33-minute film on the everyday lives of women and children in Pakistan, documenting the adverse living conditions and difficulties encountered in their struggle for a better future. The documentary also examines the work undertaken by local and international NGOs working in the field of human rights for the protection of these two vulnerable social groups.
This is an insightful documentary that does well to shed light on the other social issues such as alcholism and men, discrimination and conflict between women and men in all walks of life: domestic, public, education, workplace and politics. Children have their own trials to face at an early age because of child labour, lack of education etc.
This article was written a few years ago by Naveed Hasan Khan who works for Azad Foundation, an NGO that does works within Pakistan for Street Children from the street and off the street. It is an interesting read that tells us of yet another group of people in our society left to their own means of survival. Mr Khan does a good job by not only highlighting the crisis, but by also providing recommendations for the worsening situation at hand. Unfortunately, what most people don’t realise is that the ‘Street Children’ are also a part of our country’s future.
Condition of Human Rights in Pakistan with respect to Street Children by Naveed Hasan Khan
Children who live and work on the streets or simply work in commercial areas at a young age, are subjected to gross injustice and are frequently neglected by national law — despite the fact that our own country has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and played the host for the World Summit on Children.
The UNCRC is a guide both for experienced advocates and for non-specialists in the field regarding rights of children related to food, health education and all forms of life. It explains how to use regional and international treaties and mechanisms for the protection and defense of street children when national law fails. Continue reading ‘Condition of Human Rights in Pakistan with respect to Street Children’
