‘Collaborative efforts are needed to prevent violence against children’

ISLAMABAD: The participants of stakeholder’s consultation on the development of a Child Protection Prevention Framework (CPPF) on Sunday called for a collaborative national wide effort to prevent violence against children in Pakistan.

The event, organized by Save the Children and UNICEF at the Child Protection Institute, attended by the representatives from civil society organizations, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), the legal community, and service delivery organizations.

David Bloomer, Regional Advisor at Save the Children, and child rights expert Rabeea Hadi led the session, while Yousaf Shah, Director of the Child Protection Institute, opened the consultation with welcome remarks.

It was shared that the consultation was first of the series of consultations to be held across the country before finalising the CPPF.

During the meeting, it was revealed that over 3.3 million children aged 5-14 in Pakistan are involved in child labor, often in hazardous conditions. The prevalence of child marriage remains high, with 18 percent of girls married before the age of 18 and 4 percent before 15. Additionally, more than 80 percent of children in Punjab, Sindh, and Gilgit-Baltistan suffer from violent discipline, according to the 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS).

The participants said that CPPF aims to bridge these gaps by developing a structured framework that integrates primary (community-based prevention), secondary (targeted intervention for at-risk children), and tertiary (long-term recovery and prevention of recurrence) prevention strategies.

The framework will also establish key performance indicators and monitoring framework to assess and improve child protection efforts and will ensure regional adaptability by integrating the framework into long-term child protection policies, endorsed by provincial and regional authorities.

Participants at the consultation highlighted that poverty, lack of education and awareness, weak monitoring systems, and limited access to essential services exacerbate child protection issues. They called for stronger interventions to prevent children from being forced into labor, child marriage, and to ensure that they grow up in a protected and supportive environment.

The consultation marks an important step towards a unified, nationwide effort to address and prevent violence against children in Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025