In the sweltering heat of a farm in the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, sixteen young children work tirelessly under the sun, creating bricks for the building that will eventually be known as their school.
The idea for this school started last year in an effort to educate children who live and work on farms that are far away from any cities. Since the schools are so far away and so expensive, these children go without education all their lives, simply learning farm trade.
Many of these children grow up to be herders, plantation workers, and domestic servants. Pakistan’s education system is mostly privately run, even schools whose fee is merely six dollars a month are hard to afford for these children.
“These children face many hardships with money,” says Waqas Hamid, one of the prominent land owners in the area. “Their parents do not make a lot of money to start with so education is a last priority. The parents make their children work at a very young age, and some are sent to the city to work as servants for other wealthy families.”
Abid, a servant who has been working in different houses in the city, has been away from home for so long that he does not remember his parents, or his last name.
“I know that I was given away at a very young age, and I know that my parents used to live on a farm in Peshawar, Pakistan. I have been working in different homes for all of my life, and now I have finally settled in Lahore with my wife, and we both work as servants in the same house.”
Abid is now 27 years old and barely remembers his childhood. His earliest memory is of a family he worked for when he was only 12 years old.
“I remember taking care of the family’s younger children. Abbas was the boy’s name and Melani was the girl’s name. They were both younger than me, and I acted like an older brother to them. That is my first memory of working for a family. I’m sure I’ve worked before that time but I can’t seem to remember it that well.”
Domestic servants are very common in Pakistan. Some households have up to four servants to accommodate the large families. Some servants actually live in separate quarters of the house they work in. Some servants have worked with their families for many years.
Assia, Abid’s wife, has a similar story.
“I was given away at a young age, too. But not as young as Abid. I was given away when I was 14-years-old to a family in Rawal-Pindi, Pakistan. I moved to Lahore a few years back, and that is when I met Abid in the new house I started working in. We were both unmarried, so the head of the house decided to have us married. He even gave us a small
house of our own.”
Not many domestic servants are as lucky as Assia and Abid. Some have unsympathetic employers who pay less than minimum for their domestic services and deny them certain necessities.
Poverty is a major issue in Pakistan that results in many people becoming domestic servants. High economic growth rate combined with high capital inflow brought prosperity in the country and resulted in a substantial decline in poverty from 40 percent in the 1960s to about 17 percent in the late 1980s. However, the economic growth rate has declined to around 4 percent during the 1990s, which resulted not only in high unemployment rate but also in higher incidence of poverty and inequality in the country.
Pakistan’s economy has deteriorated in the past two years amid the highest interest rates in Asia and the nation’s fight against Taliban militants, which the United Nations says has forced one million people to flee their homes.
Just this past November, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allocated Pakistan a loan of $7.6 billion to jumpstart growth in its steadily declining economy. Many hope that this loan will ease Pakistan’s deficit and decrease unemployment rates.
“Almost all of the people I know are servants or employers of servants. Only the people with top, top educations get jobs around here,” says Mustafa Saleem, who is current working towards an accounting degree. “And with the economic problems, as well as social and political problems, it will take a long time for this nation to get back on its feet.”
Many Pakistanis have a similar sentiment but some continue to hope for the best. However, the country is still in a state of vulnerability and will surely face future challenges.
