Child welfare: ‘Don’t arrest parents in front of their child’

Consultative meeting on children of prisoners provides prescriptions and reforms.

LAHORE: In Punjab almost 80 children of incarcerated parents are currently living in prisons said Abdullah Khoso while addressing a consultative meeting organised here on Thursday by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) on issues of children of incarcerated parents.

Abdullah Khoso, the National Programme Manager at SPARC said till June 2011 there were as many as 180 children in different prisons across the country, last year there were 234. Khoso, who recently participated in a consultation by the Commission on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, said Rule 326 of the Pakistan Prison Rules states that in the provinces of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a woman offender can keep her child with her till the child is six while in Balochistan the provision is for children up to the age of three.

SP Shahida from the Police Department said that police should be trained to ensure that no parent is arrested in front of their child. She said police officials should make a personal effort in trying to ascertain whether there are any children present in the house when an arrest is being made. “It is unfortunate that not infrequently the entire family of the accused, including the children, is brought in for questioning,” she said.

She added that if an investigation requires questioning a child, it should be conducted in the presence of a social welfare officer.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan director IA Rehman said that it was generally in the best interest of the child that it not be kept in prison along with its parents. Rehman added that bail should be made mandatory for women who are pregnant or are mothering an infant. He stressed on the need for incorporating non-custodial methods in the judicial system to ensure that rights of children whose parents are imprisoned are not violated.

Law Department Deputy Secretary Abid Reza said the core issue was the violation of the rights of the child. Reza said the Home Department and the Social Welfare Department should send their recommendation to the Law Department for policy making.

Rao Khalil from the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau said the willingness of the imprisoned mother to give up her child to alternate care is a matter of great concern which requires both counselling for mothers and suitable alternative child care. He said pre-arrest and post-arrest data should also be collected and analysed.

SPARC Executive Director Arshad Mehmood said despite Pakistan being the first Islamic country and the sixth in the world to have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children are highly neglected in the country. Mehmood said currently there are between 1,200 and 1,300 women in various prisons in Pakistan out of which almost 850 are in the Punjab. He added that it was unfortunate that these were only four female probation officers in Punjab for women offenders.

MPAs including Arifa Khalid and Deeba Mirza were present at the meeting. Khalid said there was a need to train politicians so they can take into account the technical details of issues pertaining to children of incarcerated parents.

The participants recommended the use of a probation system for women with young children along with bail and parole provisions for prisoners who are solely responsible for taking care of their children. Other participants in the meeting included Abdul Rasheed, from the Ministry of Human Rights, media expert Absar Abdul Ali and representatives from various NGOs including SAHIL, Sanjog and SOS Villages.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2011.