Daily Times

SUKKUR/Jacobabad: District Monitoring Committee (DMC), formed by National Advocacy for Rights of Innocent (NARI) Foundation in collaboration with UN Women and Sindh Community Foundation to enforce Child Marriage Restraint Act 2016, held its orientation meeting under ADC1 Ali Raza Ansari.

It was decided in the meeting that Deputy Commissioner Sukkur Raheem Bux Metlo would serve as chairman of the committee and Deputy Director Women Development Abdul Ghaffar Thaheem would serve as secretary. The meeting also adjudicated to hold a meeting of the monitoring committee every month to discuss the efforts being made to implement and enforce the related laws.

Raza Ansari said that it was tough to stop child marriages but the committee would try its best to prevent this cruel practise.

NARI Executive Director Anwar Ali Mahar, Afshan Asghar and others said that child marriage was a curse which had destroyed youth of Pakistan. They said that it was the duty of all Pakistanis to take strict action against early marriages.

SWD Director Nasir Hussain Shah, Raheem Bux Mahar, Naheed Akhtar, Almas Mangi, police officer Mubashir Hussain, senior journalist Mushtaq Tanwari and Farooq Somroo also participated in the meeting and promised to render their services to stop early marriages in Sindh.

‘International Day of the Girl Child celebrated in jacobabad: An event was organised by Community Development Foundation to celebrate International Day of the Girl. The theme of the day was, “EmPOWER Girls: Before, during and after crises”.

Jacobabad Social Welfare Deputy Director Zuhra Khoso, CDF Programme Manager Saima Gul Mirani and other speakers said that every 10 minutes, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence in the world. In humanitarian emergencies, gender-based violence often increases, subjecting girls to sexual and physical violence, child marriage, exploitation and trafficking, it was said

Adolescent girls in conflict zones were 90 percent more likely to be out of school when compared to girls in conflict-free countries, compromising their future prospects for work and financial independence as adults, it was said. Across the world, empowered girls are raising their voices to fight for their rights and protection in all contexts, speakers said at the occasion.

The speakers urged for more opportunities for girls and increase in awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide. They said that the inequality included: right to education/access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care and protection from discrimination, violence against women and child marriage.

The celebrations of the day also reflected emergence of girls and young women as a distinct cohort in development policy, programming, campaigning and research.

Published in Daily Times, October 12^th 2017.