Daily Times

KARACHI: Child Rights Activists under Child Rights Movement (CRM- Sindh) a network of more than 88 child focused organizations and the Civil Society Support Programme (CSSP), a nonprofit civil society organization, expressed their concerns over the poor implementation of child-related laws and through a jointly organized media orientation on Thursday.

While addressing the media, Dr Sanaullah Allah Abbasi Head of Sindh Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said that children, being the most vulnerable and delicate members of the society, needed protection from violence, exploitation and abuse but unfortunately millions of children were suffering from all forms of abuse, exploitation and violence in Sindh due to the poor implementation of existing legislation.

Abassi said that just last year, effective time for the usage of the budget allocated to child protection had elapsed but little action was taken to ensure children’s safety. He added that Sindh neither had any child protection call centers nor shelter homes for street children.

The Head of CTD stated that 29 districts of Sindh did not have Child Protection Authority Offices, minimum standard enacted for child care institutions were not being implemented and there was a dire shortage of female medico legal officers (MLOs).

Abbasi said that the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011 demanded that an authority be established to ensure the rights of children in need of special protection measures and child protection units (CPUs) played an indispensible role in the implementation of the law but they were missing in many districts. Abbasi added that the few existing CPUs were unable to properly implement the law because they were short on resources.

Expanding further on the topic of the challenges faced by the Sindh government in protecting minors, Abbasi stated that the common practice of not documenting age at the time of marriage posed a huge hindrance in the process of eradicating child marriage in the province. He added that approximately 6.2 million children were not going to school in Sindh.

Dr Sanaullah Abbas said that Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act-2013, an act that recognized child marriage as a cognizable offense and banned under 18 marriages, could be used as an effective tool to curb the practice of child marriage.

He said that efforts should be made at the investigation level to record the statements of witnesses in a non-coercive manner and determine the age of the victim.

He said that despite being notified under the law, the district monitoring committees (DMCs) gave a feeble response and, for most part, were unable to implement the law in practice at a local level.

The Sindh Chief Minister had announced previously that CPUs would be established in all women police station to deal the child abuse cases in Sindh. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had formed an 18-member committee under his chairmanship for effective implementation and enforcement of Child Protection Rights (CPRs).

Noor Muhammed Bajeer, Sindh Secretary of CRM said that the major laws in Pakistan concerning the well being of children included Employment of Children Act, 1991, Employment of Children Rules, 1995, The Sindh Child Protection Authority Act, 2011, The Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2013, The Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013, The Protection of Breast-feeding Rules, 2009 and The Sindh Protection and the Promotion of Breast-feeding and Child Nutrition Act, 2013.

He added that the implementation of laws was crucial to the process of offering protection to children. According to International Labor Organization (ILO), approximately 168 million children were involved in child labor and at least 5.5 million were victims of forced labor.

Bajeer said that all barriers to education including cost-related constrains, child labor and forced labor needed to be eliminated. He added that it was our collective responsibility to cater to the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized children and youth, especially refugees, internally displaced children, street children and children whose right to education had been compromised by conflict and insecurity.

“These children are the keys to a secure and sustainable future, and their education is significantly important for all of us” said Bajeer.

“We at the CSSP and the CRM are going to launch a campaign for the enactment of Child Rights, related pending laws and missing Bills, along with the awareness programs on Education, all across Sindh” announced Noor Muhammad Bajeer.

Bajeer said that Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, an article about the right to education of children aged 5 to 16, would play a key role in the eradication of all forms child labor including domestic labor.

Children’s rights activists present at the media meeting attributed gender inequality and the poor implementation of child related laws at the local level to feudal mentality. They said that even though the Sindh government managed to pass a comprehensive law aimed at protecting children, it was not being implemented properly.

Published in Daily Times, May 26^th 2018.