Stolen Childhood 2017: Pakistan ranks lower in the world

Pakistan is ranked 148th best country in the world out of 172 for children to grow up in, reveals a report ‘Stolen Childhood 2017’.

The report published by Save the Children ranked countries according to the kind of facilities available to their kids such as education, health and social protection. In Pakistan, the report was launched by Child Rights Movement (CRM).

Pakistan’s regional neighbors India, Iran and China stood ahead with 116^th, 80^th, and 41^st positions respectively. Afghanistan was ranked 152^nd on the list.

According to the report, the safest countries for children in the world include Norway, Slovenia, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Italy and Belgium. Niger, Angola and Mali were ranked the worst countries for children to experience childhood.

The report highlights that Pakistan performed worst on growth stunting where 45 per cent of children under 5 suffer from the disease. Pakistan was ranked second highest in the world where 10.7 million children are affected due to stunted growth, behind India (48.2 million).

Pakistan is also ranked 8^th among top ten countries with highest number of children out of the school.

The report says that, at least 700 million children in the world, and perhaps millions more are robbed of their childhood early in their lives. The major reasons included poor health, conflict, violence, child marriages, early pregnancy, malnutrition, illiteracy and child labour.

According to The News, CRM Coordinator Alishba Yousaf said that Pakistan’s ranking is not a surprise when you look at the alarming rate of stunting and malnutrition in the country where more than eight per cent of children fail to survive till their fifth birthday.

She stressed that Pakistan need to work on this area to move up in the world ranking and to ensure that every child in the country benefits from the safe and happy childhood.