Sharing research: ‘Provinces should work together to ensure child protection’
Child protection most effective in AJK, Punjab lagging behind all others.
Provinces should work together for child protection by sharing their experiences with each other. This was the crux of a two-day consultation on “Adapting System Approach to Child Protection in Pakistan”, said a press release issued by the Child Rights Legal Centre (CRLC) in Islamabad on Friday.
The consultation was organised by the CRLC in collaboration with Save the Children.
The consultation was informed that Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has a lead in child protection mechanism with its Child Welfare Department actively involving stakeholders in various projects.
Representatives of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) asked their counterparts from AJK to share their modules with K-P so that they can draft their modules in light of AJK’s experiences.
One of the distressing facts that came into limelight was that the Punjab government, which took the initiative of child protection a decade ago, is now lagging behind all other provinces.
The participants also agreed on the need to have a centralised system to provide child protection services. The participants opined that instead of working in small segments that cost resources, it is better to have a centralised system which would also avoid duplication and would increase efficiency.
K-P Child Protection Unit (CPU) Head Ijaz Khan said that they had managed to introduce K-P Child Protection Act 2010, which aims to cover the children at risk. “We have set up a CPU in Peshawar and eight districts,” he said.
AJK Social Welfare Secretary Farhat Mir said that the issue of child protection is directly linked with law and judiciary; the responsibility of parents, guardians and the society can not be ignored. He said that the situation in AJK was somewhat different from other provinces, as majority of the people were sensitised due to various factors including higher literacy rate. “We can implement any model quite easily as compared to other provinces, which is why we are implementing our projects on child protection in a much better way,” he said.
Balochistan Secretary Social Welfare Sher Khan Bazi criticised provinces for being lazy. “Provinces got autonomy after the 18th Amendment and they should now be more active in legislation [for child protection] as well as implementation,” he said. Speaking for Balochistan, he said that a child protection bill was already with the finance division and would be approved by the cabinet “soon”.
“We have also proposed a commission that would be responsible to provide protection, shelter, food, education and health facilities to children,” he added.
Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Assistant Chief Ahsan Ghani said that they are establishing Child Protection Units. “G-B is a new setup, where we have many economic, social and cultural problems. However we are trying to overcome these problems through networking and coordination,” he said.
Dr Naeem Zafar from Punjab said that it is unfortunate that all the work that Punjab was doing on child protection has been stopped. “The most devastating act was to hand over the Child Protection and Bureau to the home department, which deteriorated its standards and damaged its real spirit,” he said.
He stressed the need for a supervisory body to monitor the various projects on child protection and to effectively revive the dead projects.
CRLC Executive Director Qindeel Shujaat concluded, “It is better to have a centralised helpline service with all organisations working together in building a strong referral system and efficiently providing services.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2011.