According to a report on "The State of Pakistan's Children 2012" launched by the Society for Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) in Lahore on 27th June, 2013, almost 25 million children and adolescents were out of school in Pakistan, out of which seven million have yet to receive primary schooling. 225,000 annual newborn deaths were reported in the country that pose new challenges to an already under-equipped health sector of Pakistan. Besides, violence against children was culturally entrenched as children in Pakistan had to cope with physical violence, sexual abuse, trafficking, recruitment in armed conflicts and acid attacks. Not only they have to cope with a lack of educational opportunities but have also to face poor health conditions, a near absence of protection, miserable conditions in juvenile jails and employment in hazardous occupations.
Pakistan also lacks adequate facilities to deal with the children who come into conflict with the law. Ineffective implementation of law means that children are often denied bail, kept with adult prisoners and produced in handcuffs before the courts. The report also revealed that there were 12 million child labourers in Pakistan as of 2012.
The contents of the report reveal that SPARC has done a good job in highlighting the miserable conditions of children generally prevailing in poor and lower middle-class families. The poor state of education in the country was evident from Pakistan's position on the Education Index where it ranked 113 out of 120 countries. The lack of schooling among children shows that this position is not going to improve and Pakistan will fail to reach the education related MDGs by 2015, which call for 100 percent Net Primary Enrolment Rate (5-9 years) and Completion Survival rate (grade 1 to 5) whereas these rates were hovering around 50 percent in the country at present. Overall literacy rate was also much less at 58 percent in 2011-12 as against the MDG target of 88 percent. In the absence of a database on violence etc against children and massive under-reporting of cases, it was not possible to estimate such abuses with certainty. However, Sahil's Cruel Numbers revealed that there were 3,861 cases of child sexual abuse in the country in 2012 while Madadgaar Helpline reported 5,659 cases of violence against children from January to October, 2012.
Whether the government or families themselves will do something to improve the situation is not difficult to guess. Starved of resources and pre-occupied fully with other important issues like energy shortages, law and order situation, militancy in the country and a host of economic problems, the government does not find enough time to take effective steps to pass all pending legislation pertaining to children and fulfil its international commitments regarding human rights in general and child rights in particular. The existing laws to protect the children are also mostly ineffective due to obvious reasons. So far as families' own efforts to improve the lot of their children is concerned, they are basically handicapped by poverty and the children are used to make money to supplement the families' incomes through a variety of ways without caring for their welfare. In a situation like this, hardly any attention is paid to UN International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1996, UNESCO's "Education for All" or MDGs' targets. Government of Pakistan has made education free and compulsory up to Grade 10. Parliament of Pakistan has passed a bill for free and compulsory education under Article 25-A of the constitution that entitles every child of age 5 to 16 years the right of education. Such steps could be a good beginning but a lot of ground has still to be covered before the condition of children could be expected to improve to make the lives of next generation more productive and fulfilling. We can only hope that the government and the parents could spare some of their time and resources for the welfare of children and check various kinds of abuses now prevalent in the society. This issue would appear to be a minor one but has huge implications for the future of the country.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Pakistan: The state of children
According to a report on "The State of Pakistan's Children 2012" launched by the Society for Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) in Lahore on 27th June, 2013, almost 25 million children and adolescents were out of school in Pakistan, out of which seven million have yet to receive primary schooling. 225,000 annual newborn deaths were reported in the country that pose new challenges to an already under-equipped health sector of Pakistan. Besides, violence against children was culturally entrenched as children in Pakistan had to cope with physical violence, sexual abuse, trafficking, recruitment in armed conflicts and acid attacks. Not only they have to cope with a lack of educational opportunities but have also to face poor health conditions, a near absence of protection, miserable conditions in juvenile jails and employment in hazardous occupations.
Pakistan also lacks adequate facilities to deal with the children who come into conflict with the law. Ineffective implementation of law means that children are often denied bail, kept with adult prisoners and produced in handcuffs before the courts. The report also revealed that there were 12 million child labourers in Pakistan as of 2012.
The contents of the report reveal that SPARC has done a good job in highlighting the miserable conditions of children generally prevailing in poor and lower middle-class families. The poor state of education in the country was evident from Pakistan's position on the Education Index where it ranked 113 out of 120 countries. The lack of schooling among children shows that this position is not going to improve and Pakistan will fail to reach the education related MDGs by 2015, which call for 100 percent Net Primary Enrolment Rate (5-9 years) and Completion Survival rate (grade 1 to 5) whereas these rates were hovering around 50 percent in the country at present. Overall literacy rate was also much less at 58 percent in 2011-12 as against the MDG target of 88 percent. In the absence of a database on violence etc against children and massive under-reporting of cases, it was not possible to estimate such abuses with certainty. However, Sahil's Cruel Numbers revealed that there were 3,861 cases of child sexual abuse in the country in 2012 while Madadgaar Helpline reported 5,659 cases of violence against children from January to October, 2012.
Whether the government or families themselves will do something to improve the situation is not difficult to guess. Starved of resources and pre-occupied fully with other important issues like energy shortages, law and order situation, militancy in the country and a host of economic problems, the government does not find enough time to take effective steps to pass all pending legislation pertaining to children and fulfil its international commitments regarding human rights in general and child rights in particular. The existing laws to protect the children are also mostly ineffective due to obvious reasons. So far as families' own efforts to improve the lot of their children is concerned, they are basically handicapped by poverty and the children are used to make money to supplement the families' incomes through a variety of ways without caring for their welfare. In a situation like this, hardly any attention is paid to UN International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1996, UNESCO's "Education for All" or MDGs' targets. Government of Pakistan has made education free and compulsory up to Grade 10. Parliament of Pakistan has passed a bill for free and compulsory education under Article 25-A of the constitution that entitles every child of age 5 to 16 years the right of education. Such steps could be a good beginning but a lot of ground has still to be covered before the condition of children could be expected to improve to make the lives of next generation more productive and fulfilling. We can only hope that the government and the parents could spare some of their time and resources for the welfare of children and check various kinds of abuses now prevalent in the society. This issue would appear to be a minor one but has huge implications for the future of the country.
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