Children’s Day: Govt urged to set up child rights body

Minister promises 100 per cent school enrolment by 2015.

LAHORE:

The Child Rights Movement (CRM) on Wednesday urged the government to establish a Punjab Commission on the Rights of the Child and prioritise funding for child rights.

The CRM organised an event on the occasion of the Universal Children’s Day at the SOS Village.

The organisation also urged the government to enact the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2013, The Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill and implement the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act 2012 Punjab, The Punjab Protection of Breast-feeding Child Nutrition (Amendment) Act 2012, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) 2000.



Sajjad Cheema of CRM Punjab said of the 2,788 cases of child sexual abuse in Pakistan in 2012, 1,888 cases were reported from the Punjab. He said at least 25 cases of child marriages were reported in the province. Of the 1,448 children abducted in Pakistan in 2012, 978 had been kidnapped from the Punjab. He said the figures showed the deplorable state of child rights in the Punjab. “Then there is the problem of ghost schools,” he said, “As many as 460 ghost schools have been reported in the Punjab.” More than 266 of these schools are used for purposes other than imparting education and 276 of the Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) exist only on paper.

Iftikhar Mubarak of the CRM said 60 per cent of the children in Pakistan were from the Punjab. Most of them lacked access to health education and protection guaranteed in the Constitution and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 1989.

He said 23 years after Pakistan ratified the convention on November 12, 1990, there hasn’t been any significant progress even though the Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly urged the government to take legal, administrative and financial measures to promote and protect the rights of children. “There is no central body or commission to monitor cases of child abuse or check the implementation of policies to this effect,” he said.

The CRM urged the government to ensure the protection from abuse, violation, humiliation, exploitation, slavery, trafficking, sale, rape, sodomy, honour killing, corporal punishment and child marriage.

Provincial Minister for Education, Youth Affairs and Sports Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, the chief guest at the event, told the participants that the government would take administrative and legislative measures to protect children. He stressed the need for effective public-private partnership to ensure the provision of rights to children in the Punjab. He said, “Education is the top priority for the government...we will ensure 100 per cent enrolment of children in schools by 2015.”

MPA Aliya Aftab, MPA Lubna Faisal, MPA Nausheen Hamid, the SOS Children’s Villages president, National Director Samina Khan and some CRM members also spoke on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2013.