K-P to extend Zamung Kor to 3 more districts

Child protection centres to be reopened in 12 districts of the province

PESHAWAR: The provincial government is planning to expand the services of its model-institute for street children, “Zamung Kor”, to three other districts of the province. Under the plan, the model institutes will be set up in Swat, Dera Ismail Khan and Haripur for which the project concept has been finalised.

This was stated by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Social Welfare Department Secretary Muhammad Idrees on Wednesday while presenting the department’s progress over the past year.

He added that apart from creating sub-campuses of Zamung Kor in these areas, an institute for street girls will also be established in Peshawar, which will accommodate around 200 street children for their rehabilitation. As part of the process, the parents of these children will be provided with a stipend.

The government, Idrees said, is also reopening the child protection units 12 districts of the province which had been previously closed. For this purpose, the procurement process is underway.

With drug addiction a growing menace in the province, the secretary said that the government is working to establish rehabilitation centres in 11 districts of the province. These centres will rehabilitate drug addicts while equipping them with the necessary skills.

So far, he said, some 516 drug addicts have been rehabilitated in the province, while another 80 are still under treatment at these centres.

Addressing issues of the elderly, Idrees said that his department has so far registered some 785,000 senior citizens. These citizens will be facilitated at dedicated support centre set up in Peshawar where they will be provided with machine-readable cards, through which they can avail various facilities.

Moreover, an endowment fund will be set up for the welfare of the transgender community, for which the department is formulating a law. So far, he said, some 527 people who are transgender have been registered in the province. Almost half of them have been provided with the health insurance card, Sehat Insaf.

To facilitate specially-abled people he said that the government is working to replace the 1981 ordinance with a permanent law which will ensure that the rights of specially-abled people are protected.

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