Making a difference: ‘Children must be trained to be proactive, responsible’

Civil society members interact with children to discuss peace in Karachi.

KARACHI: Nothing can make a difference in society unless children are trained to be proactive, responsible citizens, Children's Museum for Peace and Human Rights (CMPHR) project director Rashida Faheem on Friday.

Faheem was speaking during a dialogue session, titled 'A Peaceful Karachi is Possible', organised by CMPHR and 'I Am Karachi' at the ZVMG Rangoonwala Community Centre. Five civil society members interacted with six children from different schools at the session that aimed to trigger the curious minds of children by letting the civil society members share their experiences with them. The dialogue session was moderated by writer Rumana Husain.

Different aspects of responsibility were discussed by the speakers. Answering a child's question about discipline on TV talk shows, she said that hosts and anchors must adhere to the policies of the media. "Most of the renowned hosts are not willing to take dictates from channel owners," she said. "They [hosts], intentionally or unintentionally, lead the guests to a situation that produces undignified answers."

Jameel Yusuf, a former chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, took this discussion forward by saying that media is a commercial activity. "Media will always air what is popular among people," he said. He regretted how Pakistan does not have a defamation law, which according to him was buried at the time of independence.

Talking about why etiquette is forgotten during talk shows, parliamentarian Arif Alvi stressed that people must be very careful in the selection of words they use. "If political leaders choose to reserve their words, the talk show will be restricted to ideas alone," he said. "If you hurt someone by using inappropriate words, the situation is bound to aggravate."

Salman Haqqi, the assistant editor of Newsline magazine, said that, while people in Pakistan know how to talk and discuss a topic well, they are lagging behind when it comes to implementation. "When it comes to practice, there is a huge disparity between what we say and what we practice," he said. "People are aware of the solutions to problems but no one wants to take action."

Another important social gravity discussed at the event was the terrible state of the police force. "The police work as dictated by the officials," said environment and safety consultant Naeem Sadiq. "The police must be separated from politics so that they can identify their role in the society."

One of the children asked Sadiq to explain the reasons behind the increase in the use of weapons in Pakistan. "Pakistan has promoted the use of guns by issuing millions of arms licences," said Sadiq. "There is no record of the arms licences that have been issued in the past few years."

At the end of the session, Khan advised the children to stop watching violent news and soaps depicting marital violence. Yusuf said that children should live with freedom without being afraid of extremists and urged them to follow rules and be responsible citizens.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2015.