The ratio of domestic violence on children and suicide cases has grown in Khyber Pakhtunkwa in the last year though multiple attempts, like venom, arms, acid, suicide, burning and suicide bombing, revealed in a report launched by Society for Protection of Rights of Child (Sparc).
The 15th annual report launched on "State of Pakistan Children 2010" under the auspices of Sparc in a ceremony held at the press club on Saturday. The report covered eight major components, including child rights, juvenile justice, floods, education, and child health, violence against children, child suicide, and child labour. The report indicated that the Pakistan had failed to improve child rights under the international obligation and commitments regarding child rights.
The keynote speakers included Arshad Mehmood, Executive Director, Sparc, Dr Basharat from University of Peshawar, Amina Sarwar, research officer, Sparc and Shamim Shahid a senior journalist. The speakers termed adoption of child protection act-2010 through a Khyber Pakhtunkwa legislative assembly was a biggest achievement and called for defining and implementation of binding rules in this regard. They expressed concerns over failure for devising tangible policy to curb growing menace of child labour from the society. The speakers criticised that the government had failed to put ban in domestic child labour despite protest and agitation by members of social society.
Arshad Mehmood, Executive Director, Sparc in his speech said that the government is far away to achieve target "Education for All" by the end of 2015. Though, he said that the education ratio has grown from 56 to 57 percent in 2009, but the ratio was rapidly declined at 50 percent during last two years in wake of militancy and insurgency in the country.
He informed that more than, 1,225 juvenile offender children were still detained in different prisons of the country, saying that the about 55 underage children, including three females were released under probation basis. He called upon the civil society organisation and government to take proactive steps for rights of children in the society.
Sharing facts and findings of the report, Amina Sarwar, research officer Sparc indicated the UNCRC report had expressed concerns about poor planning for economic development, implementation of biding legislation and inadequate allocation of resources for reduction of Child labour in Pakistan. She informed that the federal children complaint office (CCO) had registered 368 complaints regarding different child issues.
She suggested that the federal government should carry on legislative matters to ensure protection and welfare of child rights in the country, saying that the vague situation was prevailed following the devolution of certain ministries under 18th constitutional amendments.
About juvenile justice, she stressed the need for establishment of establish a exclusive juvenile court along with facility of borstal institute at every district level. She said that the natural and man-made disastrous had also been affected children in country. About 13 percent of children had suffered from malnutrition during devastated floods in Khyber Pakhtunkwa. She called for rehabilitation of education, health and water facilities in insurgency and flood hits areas of the country.
According to the UN Human Development Report, she said that Pakistan stands at 141 position in term of literacy rate among 206 states in Asian states. Owing to poor security arrangement of education institutions, she said more than 700 schools bombed by militants in terrorism hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkwa. She said that the militancy and insurgency are the major factor behind low literacy rate in the county, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkwa and rest of country. The literacy rate stands 50 percent with overall in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, she added.
Similarly, she said the health situation is very poor in the country, saying that around 460,000 children below age of five lost life due to poor health delivery system in the country. Whereas 53 deaths were occurred after 1,000 births in prevailing health system, she added.
About the child suicide cases, she said that about 80 children had attempted suicide in 2010, saying that the greater number of male suicide cases reported in Khyber Pakhtunkwa. The domestic violence, deputes, poverty, punishment, and poor financial conditions are the key reason behind growing trend of suicide among children in terrorism-hit Khyber Pakhtunkwa, she added. According to economic survey report, she said that the ratio of economically active children around 10-14 age have been increased from 10.9 to 13.6 percent during 2000-2008.
She said that child domestic labour is widely prevalent in Punjab and Sindh with girl children as servants, but the ratio is very low in Khyber Pakhtunkwa and Balochistan in this regard. She stressed the need of comprehensive legislation to curb growing trend of child labour in the country. Dr Basharat and Shamim Shahid also spoke on the occasion.
Comments
Comments are closed.