Scores of boys aged between 15 and 17 years can be seen staying in cramped rooms of ramshackle hotels in the Booni bazaar. These young men have come here mostly from the Laspur and Yarkhun valleys not to sit any exam or seek a job. Rather, they are harvesting the wheat crops of people in the Booni town and nearby villages as labourers to earn a living.
When approached by ChitralToday, most of the boys refused to give details about the circumstances in which they left their homes in the summer heat and holy month of Ramazan to work as labourers here.
In the morning and evening, these boys in groups of about six to 10 harvest the crops and then share rooms in the hotels. Many of them were upbeat about taking admission to colleges but said they had to work to meet the expenses of their education.
Local people said they had seen the arrival of the schoolboys in the town to work as labourers for the last many years. They said that it was a big question mark on the better tomorrow slogan of non-governmental organizations and free education mantra for all of the government.
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I tend to disagree with the respected writer on this issue.we should encourage those students who do labour work during the waiting period and earn some money to contribute towards their education expense.provision of social sector services including education is one of the basis responsibilities of the welfare states.but the situation of our beloved country is in front of US,we cannot change that in the near future.
As we know Chitral is the largest district of KPK in terms of area but it receives merely two percent of provincial budget owing to it’s population.
The government allocation is very limited to provide secondary school facilities in all it’s 32 valleys.to fill this gap private sectors has played a vital role in providing secondary school facilities in far flung areas including Yarkhoon and Laspur.the fees (around Rs 15000 per annum) of those private institutions is beyond the capacity of poor parents.if these students would have gone to down districts and work there they could have saved nothing but in their own district they can save a good sum out of their daily wages.
It is much much better to be independent than to see towards some NGOs or philanthropist for help.it is not the responsibility of NGOs to provide every services,if they are doing some service delivery and supplementing the government we have to be thankful to them.
Our problem is we always see toward NGOs for every services including the provision of public goods which is in the realm of government.