WE all know that the Pakistani state is weak, its writ is limited, and our rulers are indifferent. But there is something particularly heartbreaking about the impact of this decay when it is felt by the most vulnerable members of society: our children.

Particularly when the children themselves are from poor backgrounds, and come from conflict-ridden areas of the country.

The discovery on Wednesday of 26 girls held as bargaining chips in a home in Karachi in a debt recovery exercise is a tragic reminder of how children can become players in games in which they never asked to participate.

The girls were brought to a house whose owner had taken a loan from the management of the madressah where they were enrolled as students.

Know more: Police recover 36 minor girls from Karachi home

Reportedly, the madressah management sought to impose the cost of the upkeep of the girls on the owner of the house, as well as use the girls as a way to maintain a presence in the house in case it needed to be taken against the loan in the event of default.

Let us consider the myriad failures of our state and economic system that lie behind this story. First is the failure to provide a viable education, which is a constitutionally mandated obligation of the state.

Second is the mushrooming growth of madressahs, especially unregistered ones, most of which have resisted any check on their activities by a government that is only too glad to keep away.

Read: 35 little girls moved to Sindh govt shelter

Third is the failure of the country’s formal credit systems to reach the poorer segments of society, leaving people to their own devices when it comes to raising or borrowing money.

And fourth is the decrepit capacity of the state to provide proper mechanisms for enforcement of contracts, leading to growing recourse to such informally arranged mechanisms to collect on a debt.

In the case of the young girls, each one of these factors played a role in turning the children into pawns in a game between adults.

Recall here the number of horrific reports of child abuse emerging from madressahs, as well as Malala Yousafzai’s story that revolved around a young girl struggling to get an education for herself, and data showing the pitiable state of our government-sponsored educational system. Recall also the number of horrific cases that grow out of informal debt, such as the practice of bonded labour.

Also read: Police recover 36 minor girls from Karachi home

Consider how the brutal murder of the Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan recently had debt and its recovery at its core. We can stand in silent contemplation of the myriad ways in which the rising tide of informality extracts its price.

But the heaviest cost of this failure of institutionalisation is borne by our children, who have to pay with their futures, their hopes, and far too often, with their tears and their lives.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2014