Compulsory education law must be implemented, say educationists

Under constitutional provisions, education is among basic and legal rights of every child

PESHAWAR: According to official figures in the province, it is estimated that over 18 million school-going children are not attending school and end up on the streets where they are subjected to child labour and sexual abuse  and as compared to the previous year’s data the figures of such children have increased by eight to 10 per cent.

The other negative aspect of such case studies showed that the provincial government has failed to ensure the rules related to children in the province as the demand was made by the provincial network of more than 50 organisations involved in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Child Rights Movement (K-P CRM) at a meeting in Peshawar on Saturday.

While addressing the gathering the network coordinator Khurshid Banu said that these numbers which have been shared with media does not include figures of out-of-school children of the newly merged districts of the province.

As under the constitutional provisions education is among the basic and legal rights of every child between aged from five to 16 years and it been safeguarded under the Article 25A of the Constitution of the land, and similar law also exists related to the law of compulsory education in the province.

It is the responsibility of the provincial government to educate every child not to be exploited and abused, Banu demanded of the government.

Laila Shahnawaz of Khwindi Kor (a non-profit organisation) on the occasion stated that children between the age of 14 to 16 of different districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Punjab are working in the coal mines of Balochistan, where they were not being provided basic rights and labour rights are also being violated.

Laila said that they also work for minimum wages at the risk of their young lives coalmines in Balochistan and urged that the provincial government should identify children who are working against the law in the most dangerous of labour. Ensure compliance with the provincial child labour law 2015 which directs the provincial government to ban children from domestic labor through a notification.

On the occasion the provincial coordinator of the Group Development Pakistan Organisation Imran Takkar,  said the province has a comprehensive law on the Protection of Endangered Children under the "Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010" under which a commission was also formed in 2011.

He identified the negligence of the commission and pointed out that regular meetings of the commission were not taking place.

It is also mandatory on the provincial government to ensure regular flow of funds so that international quality child protection units could be set up in every district throughout the province.

He said that under this law, the Peshawar High Court has ordered the establishment of three child courts, but the provincial government has declined the High Court directive of establishing such court in every district.

Imran Takkar added that in accordance with the current Prisoner Children's Law, the “Juvenile’s   Justice System Act 2018”, children should be kept in reformative institutions, not in prisons, But contrary to the law, between 400 and 500 prisoners are being held behind bars in various prisons in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2019.