The 20th November Walk

Child protection bureaucrats in Pakistan celebrate progress on World Children's Day, real issues remain unaddressed

No one could be more satisfied and self-congratulatory in celebrating the World Children's Day on 20th November than the Child Right Bureaucrats of Pakistan. Having surpassed all imaginable performance records and having created a mini heaven for every child in Pakistan, they deserve every credit, glory and award. But for the colour of their skin, even the prestigious Stockholm award could have landed in their laps many moons ago.

Here is a miniscule exposure of our achievements. Pending for past many decades, we have been able to comprehensively resolve the problem of our 28 million out-of-school children. They are all back in schools, transported each day by dedicated luxury school buses, receive world class education (using the Finnish model) and fed hearty nutritious meals. The age-old compulsion of teachers often using canes, sticks and rulers to discipline the wayward has not been heard for decades.

The problem of 60 per cent children, neither registered nor acknowledged by the state till they reached the age of 5, is a story of the past. Our new system makes a NADRA representative personally deliver a birth certificate and a CRC to the parents within 24 hours of the birth, along with a bouquet, personally selected by the DG Child Protection. A lady health visitor reaches the parents to provide useful birth control advice and equipment. Within two days of the birth, the District Child Protection officer arrives to sensitise the infant on the 'rights of the child', including the right to call Helpline 1121, in case of 'neglect' by the mother in providing timey feeds or cleanups.

Some of the senior citizens might recall the phenomenon of 70s and 80s, when we had 1.2 million children begging at every intersection at every street. No one sees a child on the streets anymore, as our child-friendly support systems can proactively provide food, clothing education, medicine, counselling and shelter to every needy child.

The problem of 3.3 million children engaged in child labour has been comprehensively rooted out by our efficient child protection departments. The stories of torture to 10-year-old maids who were once made to sit aloof while the begums had fancy meals at exotic restaurants would now be considered fairytales. Through quiet observations, these exploited girls gained such deep understanding of the restaurant business that many of them are now the owners of these 'prestigious' snooty joints.

Very few know that a lot of our success is due to the untiring research and efforts of our committed child protection officers. It is they who voluntarily created an excellent 'integrated child protection system' that is today the core policy document for everything that we do or not do. Thanks to this proactive mechanism that we no longer have to accept the intervention or pressure of the publicity-hungry politicians or the opportunity-seeking activists.

With all child rights issues tackled so comprehensively and superbly, we are now fortunate to be able to spend many months every year preparing for important and strategic issues such as the World Children's Day on 20th November. Almost every child protection department will most profusely participate in celebrating this day by either organising a walk, a seminar or at least issuing a well-worded statement (normally selected from the archives of the previous years). The most difficult part of organising a walk is the selection of the chief guest. Currently we are considering 3 ministers as potential chief guests for the walk on 20th November. However, our best shot will be to invite the minister for transport. While he has little to do with children, he is the one who could approve the allotment of the 30 government vehicles we would love to have for our officials.

Disclaimer: Based largely on wishful thinking and partly on facts, any resemblance in this article to any child protection department is entirely incidental.