Child rights: ‘Unless enforced, Article 25-A for education is no good’

Members of SPARC stress on need for establishing child protection units across Sindh.

SUKKUR: There are multiple effective laws in the country to protect children’s rights but they are not being implemented, said speakers at a seminar titled ‘Child Rights and Protection’ on Thursday.

The event was organised by the NGO, Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), at the DIG office. Representatives from SPARC, including Nazra Jehan, Dr Fakhir Suhail and Sajjad Cheema, were in agreement that Article 25-A  — which gives every child between the age of five and 16 years the right to free education — was of no use without proper mechanisms.

According to them, there were 11 million children of school-going age in Sindh, out of which only 6.4 million were getting formal education. In urban Sindh, 54 per cent boys and 46 per cent girls attend school, but the ratio changes drastically in the rural areas  where 63 per cent boys and only 37 per cent girls go to schools.



The speakers also shared the alarming state of child rights in the country, saying that the cases of sexually abused children were rampant. According to Madadgar National Helpline, around 5,659 cases of violence against children were reported from across Pakistan from January 2012 to October 2012. The cases included 302 cases of sodomy and 407 of sexual assault. According to the Sahil organisation’s annual Cruel Report, 3,861 cases of child sexual abuse were reported from different parts of the country in the year 2012 and majority of the victims reported were identified as minor girls. Almost 67 per cent of the cases were reported from rural areas while 33 per cent were reported from urban areas.

The speakers demanded that Sindh government urgently enforce the pending Child Protection laws, which include the maximum punishment, without the possibility of parole, remission or pardon, for pedophilia, rape and gang-rape convicts. They also asked that child protection units should be established throughout the province for providing free legal aid to the victims.

Sukkur DIG Sharjeel Kareem Kharal informed the participants child protection desks had been established at Sukkur, Khairpur, Ghotki and Naushero Feroze. “The child protection desks are actively working in Sukkur and Khairpur districts. The ones in Ghotki and Naushero Feroze are being re-organised.”

He appealed to parents to send their children, without gender discrimination, to schools which, according to him, is the only way to make them responsible citizens of tomorrow. Later, the DIG distributed certificates of achievements among the participating police officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2013.