Female prisoners' children in Hyderabad get free education facility

First early learning centre launched in August, 2015 in Karachi Central Jail

HYDERABAD: An early learning centre (ELC) that will provide education to the children of female prisoners was formally inaugurated on Monday at the Hyderabad Central Jail.

Sindh Women Development Secretary Mudassar Iqbal said this is the second such centre to be established in Sindh. The first one was launched in August, 2015 at Karachi Central Jail, Iqbal said, adding that both centres aim to provide free education to the children of imprisoned women.

With the help of the Legal Aid Office - Committee for the Welfare of Prisoners (LAO-CWP), a Karachi-based non-governmental organisation, similar educational facilities will be opened in other prisons of the province, Iqbal shared.



LAO-CWP Associate Director Maliha Zia said their project, which offers high-quality early education to children, is the first initiative of its kind in Pakistan.

"Under the law, female prisoners can keep their children with them [inside the prison]. LAO-CWP has identified these children as being high risk and deprived of the very fundamental right of education," Zia said.

The ELC in Hyderabad currently has 18 children aged between three and nine years enrolled. The classes will run for five days a week under a trained montessori teacher.