Daily Times

Children are the most vulnerable segment of society in Pakistan. During the last two years there have been umpteen cases of extreme neglect, abduction and abuses, especially in the province of Punjab. Seven-year-old Zainab’s rape and murder had sparked outrage and protests across the country after she was found dead on a trash dump in Kasur on 9thJanuary, 2018. In fact, media reports energized the government andenraged the society to come on one page to pursue and penalize the perpetrator of the gruesome crime, who was apprehended and later hanged in record short time.

However, it was a one-time furor that facilitated quick justice. More importantly, Zainab could have been saved from the horrific treatment and clutches of death had proper preventive procedures and processes been in place. The accused was sent to gallows but it was not the end of the miseries of umpteen other hapless children. In last six months of 2019 as many as 1300 children were subjected to sexual abuse of some kind, according to child rights organisation, Sahil. In 2018, over 3,800 cases of child sexual abuse were reported across Pakistan. The actual number of child abuse cases might be much more than the reported or identified cases. The government has been taking steps for child protection over years but mostly too feeble and snail-paced. In 2017, Pakistan Penal Code was amended to address the pervasive problem of child abuse. Laws were tightened concerning child pornography, exposure of a child to seduction and child sexual abuse. Nevertheless, slack implementation of laws could not deter the perverts which is evident from the number of child abuse cases in 2018. As per UNICEF,nearly 30 years after Pakistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), no public coordinated child protection case management and referral system, as aligned with international standards, has been established.

The solution to child abuse is not more laws but more awareness. Sustained awareness campaign to educate children, parents, teachers and even police about the tactics of predators and ways to tackle them should be the corner stone of the child protection policy

In this backdrop, it is hard to find a plausible reason to believe that 2020 would ensure better and safe environment for children. Even the much-trumpeted Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, (ZARRA) 2020, has little strength in it to make concrete contribution in child protection efforts. ZARRA aims to raise alert when a child goes missing or is abducted. It will become law once approved by the Senate. It’s a good step in the right direction, though government dragged its feet on it and took eight months to pass it from the parliament.Ironically this law is quite limited in its scope and jurisdiction. The Act will be enforced only in the federal capital, Islamabad, as law and order is a provincial subject after 18th Amendment. The province and the place where Zainab was kidnapped, raped and murdered doesn’t fall in its jurisdiction. Itis beyond comprehension why a law was required for just raising an alert on abduction of a child. Moreover,it should have included creation of a national surveillance system for child abuse and neglect that could link data across multiple systems and sources.

ZARRA is not only vague but also seems to have been written hurriedly, without any cogent and credible research. It has failed, like other child protection laws, to take into consideration serious or sadistic child sex offending that typically rests on psychiatric concepts of ‘pedophilia’. Definition of child abuse and neglect is also missing. Taking the critique to a different but related level, the language of this peace of law is utterly faulty at places. Even the paragraph where the Minister has to sign is replete with errors of syntax and grammar. It shows the lack of interest taken in this law. The annexure containing details of missing child seems to be an unnecessary addition thoughtlessly inserted in it. At best, it could be part of the SOPs or the investigators form.

The seriousness of the government would be measured once it becomes a law. It is the responsibility of the government to make a strong policy and strategy to implement it, along with the required budget allocations and trainedpolice forces. More importantly its jurisdiction needs to be expanded to the provinces to make it useful.

Policy makers must keep this fact in mind that there is no dearth of laws for protection of children. All provinces have enacted laws in this regard. It is lack of implementation of these laws which needs to be addressed. If at all a new law was to be enacted it should have been Child Abuse and Neglect Act. Besides there is a need for a comprehensive policy to cover the issue from all avenues including social, educative and legal features of child protection endeavours. The solution to child abuse is not more laws but more awareness. Sustained awareness campaign to educate children, parents, teachers and even police about the tactics of predators and ways to tackle them should be the corner stone of the child protection policy.

Furthermore, policymakers and legislators must understand that the laws and policies are weak and faulty because adequate research is not done to understand the causes of the problem and to deliberate over numerous ways to bridle it. There is a need to develop a coordinated research initiative in child abuse and neglect that is relevant to the programs, policies, and practices that influence children and their parents/guardians. For this purpose, a national strategic research plan may be drawn that explains implementation and accountability steps, trains high-quality researchers to conduct child abuse and neglect researchand create mechanisms for conducting policy-relevant research. These initiatives will lead to availability of credible data for evidence based policy making.

It is a cruel fact that children are the most unrepresented segment of the society. They are neither members of parliament nor do they take part in enactment of legislation for their own well-being. The onus is on the adult citizens to act on their behalf with the same sincerity and seriousness as they apply for themselves. The federal and provincial governments should ensure not only formulation of laws and policies but also sustained implementation of the same for protection of the child in Pakistan in year 2020. All segments of the society must go all-out to achieve this goal.

The writer is the author of ‘Terrorism in Pakistan: Tehreek-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Challenge to Security’