Daily Times

DADU: Senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and Sindh Minister for Women Development Syeda Shehla Raza on Sunday addressed an awareness programme on protection of children and their proper upbringing at Dadu Gymkhana.

Reportedly, she urged parents and guardians to ensure protective measures for their children, and termed education ‘crucial’ for enhancing their ability to achieve better carrier opportunities.

“It is parents’ responsibility to provide healthy environment to their children and view early learning and child care programs as a significant part of their education and integral to their development,” she said, adding that it was essential to avoid moral decadence and uplift youthful exuberance in the society.

The minister further said that parents needed to play a constructive role for the society’s development and prosperity in terms of effective counseling, proper monitoring and good moral values in their daily pursuits for children to emulate.

Moreover, she advised youths to avoid court marriages and urged them to respect their parents’ suggestions in marriages.

Meanwhile, Council for Participatory Development (CPD) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Balqis Rehman, Sindh Commission on the Status of Women (SCSW) Chairperson Nuzhat Shireen and Sindh Child Rights Movement (CRM) Coordinator Kashif Bajeer also addressed participants in the programme.

Balqis Rehman urged the provincial government to adopt effective policies to improve literacy rate in Sindh, and said that steps were required on the priority basis to enroll all out-of-school children, who were doing labour for earning their livelihood, by functioning ghost schools across the province.

Kashif Bajeer appealed to the government for opening child protection units across Sindh.

Nuzhat Shireen assured participants that the SCSW would support all necessary measures for protection of children in the province. Later, students of many schools performed tableaus and gave speeches on various topics.

Besides, social activists, members of civil society and several notables also participated in the programme.

Published in Daily Times, September 10^th 2018.