Everyday Rasool Baksh gets up early in the morning, takes the fishing net, and pushes off towards Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast. He is 13-year-old, but he never had the opportunity to go to school.
In the line of his family business, he took up fishing so that he can at least have two meals a day. Rasool spent one year in the Indian jail, as he was caught fishing in the controversial territorial waters of India.
In his words:
It was hard in the Indian jail but fishing is our business. It has been passed to us down the generations. We can’t do any other job so we take the risk.
This however, does not dissuade him from joining his relatives and villagers in their fishing expedition.
Rasool is not the only one; there are over 50,000 children in Pakistan, who are making their daily livelihood by fishing.
ILO is undertaking few projects for the children of the fishing community; nevertheless, it is still a long way to go when the children will start heading towards the school instead of the sea.
Via: BOSTON
