Khatoon Bibi, Mother of Three, Put Her Children on the Road with a 'For Sale' Tag

Think about the misery of a mother who has put her children on the road with a tag of ‘For Sale’. The story behind the scene is not new in the inflation-torn society of Pakistan. Many mothers like this have attempted suicides with all her children due to poverty and melancholy of life. Few of such mothers put their beloved children outside Edhi centre because they have no resources to even feed their children.

Khatoon Bibi and her three children Namely Waqas (9), Waqar (6) and Amna (3) for sale out side Government Allama Iqbal Hospital. (Photo Credit: The Express Tribune)

 The latest one came in light from Dulchike, a village in Sialkot district, when the 33-year-old Khatoon Bibi put her three children; Waqas, 9, his six-year-old brother Waqar and their three-year-old sister Amna, on sale outside Government Allama Iqbal Hospital.

According to Khatoon Bibi, she has no resources to feed her children and provide them other basic needs of life with her small earning as house-maid. Her husband Bilal is under treatment in the hospital for his drugs addiction and probably on taking the last breaths of his life.

She got married with Bilal 10 years ago; even that time Bilal was addicted and used to beat her every now and then, Khaoon Bibi further told with eyes full of tears.

Parents of Khatoon Bibi are already dead and brothers have no enough resources to take burden of further four members; while her in laws have already kicked her off with her children and she has no option other than to put her children on the road as ‘For Sale’.

Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) has come forward on the special instructions of Nasim Nasir Khwaja, a PML-N member of the Punjab Assembly, and took the children and her mother in the custody to provide them basic needs of life.

CPWB superviser Zafar Iqbal said that Khatoon and her children had been taken into protective custody and would be provided food, shelter and other facilities. Khatoon herself will be provided vocational training and a Rs3,500 monthly stipend at Darul Falah, according to the organisation’s superintendent.