| Answer: Your concern is
important, and I shall try to simplify my response as much as possible.
Pakistan is a developing country and its growth rates have not been
encouraging – relative to, for instance, India since the country’s creation
in 1947. The lack of efficient allocation and sub-optimal exploitation of
resources have been translated into a society of low literacy rates, low
levels of hygiene etc. Most of Pakistan’s population lives below the poverty
line. This implies that poor parents prepare their kids for hard work and
toil, or alternatively, for begging from very young ages. We see five year
olds begging on the streets, cleaning the gutters, working as home servants,
or employed for manual labor in factories, and so on. My own inclination is
to understand all this, as a product of poverty more than anything else. Why
wouldn’t parents want to spend in their children’s education instead of
forcing them to bring much needed money into the household? Since death
rates are high, especially infant mortality rates in the villages of
Pakistan, poor parents produce many children, in the hope that some will
survive to work.
Now, having said all that,
let’s come to the question of entertaining the ‘rights to education of girls
and boys’. Sadly enough, there is great tendency to generalize on the basis
of what I have explained above regarding the adverse state of affairs in
Pakistan. They exaggerate the situation as much as to claim that children’s
rights to modern studies have generally declined in the country. I think
this is not the case. My argument is based on the very encouraging, and
evident success of NGOs (Non-Government Organizations). There are many
projects currently underway, in the rural areas of the country that are
aiming to educate the masses, at least up to the secondary level. The way
some of them work is extremely pleasant; they offer a fixed amount of money
each time a child attends a class lecture. This is an excellent imitation of
a welfare state by the conscious members of out society. Such programs
eradicate two problems: they educate the children, and simultaneously,
improve the financial positions of poverty-stricken households. With the
kind of response that is being announced by these NGOs, it seems that
parents are willingly and happily sending their children to study, and
express their jubilation over the opportunity for their kids to live a
normal and healthy childhood. I view this as a marvelous attempt to
revitalize the system of education for children. There was a time when girls
were absolutely discouraged, but by the grace of the Almighty, those
scenarios seem to be disappearing; except of course, in areas where either
the jagirdars (landlords) impose all kinds of slavery impressions in order
to maintain their rein over their subjects, or where cultures are still
primitive.
Coming to city life, where
mainly the middle and upper class reside permanently, there is much
insistence on good education for both boys and girls. Those who can afford
to see their girls and boys enroll into PhD programs at home and abroad.
There are exceptions, of course. It may be noteworthy to mention here that
some employers even educate their home servants – male and female – on a
personal level inside their houses.
To sum it all up, in my
opinion, the question is not about allowing education for males and females,
rather, the question is about allowing education to precede sustenance. Of
course, this opinion is open to criticism.
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