Out of the Garbage Dump
We have seen many small kids hanging large garbage filled bags on their shoulders but we never gave them importance and we just ignore them every time. These little Afghan kids with specific facial posture and high cheek bones are mostly seen on the garbage dumps collecting plastic and paper or eating some rotten fruits.
Have we ever thought about them? We wake up early only in the month of Ramadan, and we feel this hell tiring routine, but these children wake up early everyday and start searching for garbage drums and dumps. No one wants to look ugly but have we ever thought why these little kids always remain ugly, seriously they don’t want to but they don’t even have water to wash their faces and brush their teeth, how could they afford to wash their clothes. They know the importance of every drop of water because they don’t have taps and showers running with water. We pass from garbage dumps covering our nose but how these little kids sit on garbage dumps searching for scrap, they don’t love the smell because they also feel it like a normal human but they have they have to choose either smell or hunger, so they prefer smell. Plastic bottles and scrap is nothing for us but every bottle and piece of paper seems like one time meal to them. We never notice their tearful eyes when they see other children playing. Many of them feel urge to study but we never notice their desire full eyes when they collect those newspapers from the street, may be many of them wanted to read what’s on that piece of paper.
Our young children become tired by carrying a school bag for one or two hours but these small kids carry bags bigger than their body size for the whole day. We are so frustrated from load shedding problem but we never thought about these little kids sleeping in slums. We feel suffocated when electricity is not there but we never think that these small kids live without light from last 6, 7 years. We feel sick after standing for 15 minutes in the sun but we never think what these kids feel walking on a hot coal tar road with their small bare feet. We wear layers of clothes and use heaters in winters. Had we ever thought about these little kids living in huts without doors and made up of paper sheet? How will you feel if water dribble into your room, when it rains? Any one of us ever gone to their huts during Eid days to see that are they celebrating the Eid and collecting Eidi like our children or they are still sitting on some garbage toll searching for their meal.
We never bother to give them importance because it’s usual and not an eye catching. We forget that their ancestors were Mughals and shahs who once ruled the world. We forget that our recycling plants are running because of these little shoulders that hold the burden of large bags.
We think that they are savages but no they are not, the reality is that we are savages. We think that they don’t have heart and they don’t feel but actually they have bigger heart then ours so they let those things go.
They don’t want us to give them money because they know the power of their little shoulders. The only thing they want from us is respect. Respect for their little shoulders, respect for their little bare feet. Respect for their ugly faces and respect for their dirty clothes. Respect for all they are doing for us.
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