Even though vigorous and vibrant suggestions seldom appeal to the people in power, I still take it as my duty to draw the attention of lead­ers towards the issues of the de­prived segments of society. As we all know, scavenging and begging are common scourg­es in the country and the Is­lamabad Capital Territory is no exception. We often see lit­tle girls and boys scavenging at dumps and begging on roads. But unfortunately, all those who are at the helm of affairs ignore this scourge in the beautiful city of Islamabad as well as other cities of the country.

It is always a painful scene, a scene that portrays the struggle of little girls and boys for their survival through scavenging and begging. Regrettably, if this is the fate of little girls and boys in the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, what would be the situation in far-flung areas of the country?

We have done nothing to keep inno­cent children away from scavenging and begging in Islamabad. Despite tall claims, we have not worked to bring about a meritorious change. No meagre momentary support from foreign agen­cies, with different themes, can improve the situation for poor children that beg and scavenge. Our religion and consti­tution dictate us to spread education but in reality, about 23 million children between the ages of 5 to 16 are out of school in our country.

We should not leave a single child out of school in the capital city to set up a mod­el for other cities and areas of the coun­try. On the other hand, our social sector is a neglected area and we seldom take care of social upbringing. This negligence is the main cause of our deprivation in the social and education sectors. During the last 75 years, we have not been able to translate our dreams into reality because we have not given attention to our core issues that could improve our social fibre through a higher literacy rate.

Even after 75 years, we are still tin­kering with literacy programmes. In the past, we have seen haphazard lit­eracy and social welfare programmes that have failed because of incompe­tence and inconsistency. We need to re­alise that we cannot achieve our targets in the social sector unless the federal and provincial governments go all out to provide sustainability to poor seg­ments of society through modern entre­preneurship. For example, online sell­ing and buying techniques can help a long way in achieving self-sustainability among poor segments of society.

The lacking education facilities, as we see, have wasted our young genera­tions and no one knows how many bril­liant brains have been wasted without education. The whole nation is passing through a phase of abysmal ignorance and widespread illiteracy. But for living a life of respect and aplomb we have to take revolutionary steps for the spread of education beyond slogans like, “ed­ucation for all”, “compulsory free pri­mary education”, “education is on the top of the priority list” and many more, which are still slogans even after a long journey of 75 years.

People now take these impractical slogans with a grain of salt because they know governments are fond of saying things that they seldom do. Coming back to the issue of scavenging and begging, it is not out of place to say Islamabad is a place where the President of Pakistan, the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, a corps of ministers and top bureaucrats, and top officers of international organ­isations dwell. But one wonders why they cannot keep a small number of children away from the dumps and beg in the federal capital.

We can achieve all this and more if we have the will to do something. But we usually don’t opt for practicality and doom the destiny of our future genera­tions in the darkness of utter depriva­tion. Fortunately, there is always a sil­ver lining but unfortunately, we do not want to pursue that silver lining and leave matters of magnitude in the lurch.

The solution, if the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division so wishes, lies in collecting Iqra surcharge levied way back in 1982 for the primary education of deprived segments of the society and a huge amount was collected in the past under this head. Some ten years back, the Supreme Court of Pakistan took up the case of Iqra Surcharge and then the Secretary of Finance personally attended the august court and informed that from 1985 to 1995 an amount of Rs 66 billion was collected under Iqra Surcharge.

However, no details of the utilisation of rupees 66 billion were available with the Finance Ministry, Secretary of Fi­nance informed the honourable judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

This surcharge was meant for the pro­vision of primary education to poor chil­dren in the country. Now, for this noble cause of providing primary education to poor segments of society with some financial incentives, the Poverty Allevi­ation and Social Safety Division should pursue the case of Iqra Surcharge fund­ing for its utilisation in the primary ed­ucation sector and especially for giving education and skill training to scaven­gers and beggars through Pakistan Bait Ul Maal to make them a useful member of the society. In this programme, UNI­CEF, UNESCO, International Labour Or­ganisation (ILO) and other entities may also be involved for technical support. First of all, if so agreed by the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, a survey may be started as a pilot project in Islamabad Capital Territory to ascer­tain the number and needs of scaven­gers and beggar children.

These children, being the breadwin­ners, cannot be engaged in education­al and skill training activities without some financial assistance. The Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, if so, should prepare a package for these children to help them get rid of scaveng­ing and begging and go to primary edu­cation and skill training centres.

This might be a gigantic task but we now have to come up with it as 75 years have already gone by and we are still clueless about the direction that can lead us to our destination.

Waqar Gillani
The writer is former spokesman to Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly