Parents, teachers educated about Zainab Alert app

Community engagement campaign launched for the application

ISLAMABAD:

Having launched the Zainab Alert application last month, the federal human rights ministry on Monday launched a community engagement campaign for the app by educating teachers and parents in Sohan.

To raise awareness about the application, the first session of the interactive community engagement campaign was held at the Pilot Comprehensive Community Development Centre in Sohan.

It encouraged parents, teachers, and other community members to report missing children using the newly instituted mechanism.

The campaign included interactive community sessions to explain the technical aspects of the application and how to effectively use it to report, track and trace missing children in their communities.

Participants were given demo tutorials on how to use the app. Moreover, they were told that the police are obligated to contact the person who generated the alert within 24 hours and lodge an FIR based on the information provided.

The alert will then be sent to the District Police Officers (DPOs) and the Regional Police Officers (RPOs) through their respective dashboards, as well as through SMS notifications due to the urgent nature of response required.

Inspector Generals (IGs) will be responsible for following up in their provincial capacities, as well as the respective chief ministers and provincial home secretaries.

People were informed about the option of tracking and tracing progress of their complaint through the application. They are also encouraged to regularly visit the public registrar of missing children on the app.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2020.