Mera Bacha Alert

Unless police reforms are implemented, the ‘Mera Bacha Alert’ app is unlikely to make much difference

In what is aimed at stopping increasing incidents of child abduction and abuse, the government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has recently launched the ‘Mera Bacha Alert’, a mobile application that will allow prompt and confidential reporting of a missing child and instantly provide details of the disappearance to senior police officials. Child abuse is, unfortunately, a common occurrence in our country, with reported child abuse cases increasing by 11 per cent in 2018 as compared to the figure in 2017. Although the app is significant in that it will encourage parents to immediately report missing children who may not otherwise do so due to social stigma and other reasons, it is important to remember that it does not diminish the importance of police reforms as, once a child is reported missing, it is the police who are responsible for recovering them.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s comments are telling in that regard. Speaking recently on the kidnappings of four children in Kasur’s Chunian tehsil, he termed them a result of police negligence and emphasised the need to urgently fix ‘police incompetence’, adding that the tragedy could have been prevented had the police initiated a timely investigation. Child protection experts have also blamed the rise in such incidents on a wider culture of apathy among law enforcers. A prominent child rights NGO has also lamented as ‘shocking’ the laxity of both the government and the police in cases of child sexual abuse. In addition, a Sindh High Court bench has also recently bemoaned police performance in missing children cases, calling it “zero”. There is also the matter of police corruption. The well-regarded US Secretary of State’s Report on Trafficking in Persons speaks of our police’s complicity with criminals, saying that, when poor girls go missing, their families lack the finances for their rescue.

Unless police reforms are implemented in these areas, the ‘Mera Bacha Alert’ app is unlikely to make much difference.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2019.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.