“My brother Ahsan and I first started selling samosas eight years ago when our father fell ill and could not work alone anymore.

In the beginning, we would just help him out every now and then. I would join my father at wherever he would have stationed his stall for the day after I was done with school. I have really bad eyesight and it is getting worse with time. My teachers at school would get angry with me for not being able to concentrate in class and even beat me at times.

Because of this I left school. My brother has also left school since. We started working full time when my father was diagnosed with Asthma some five years ago and could not work at all.

We are now responsible for providing for our family, for getting medicine for our father and for paying rent. We are both working hard so our sister, who studies in class 10 and our younger brother who is in the fourth grade, don’t have to give up school for work. We sell about 100 to 150 samosas every day and end up earning Rs2,000 on average per day. I think if they did not beat me so much, I would not have left school at all.”

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2016