The vulnerable children of Pakistan

By Zeeba T Hashmi

Harmful practices against children, including child abuse, go on with impunity and unfortunately lack prioritisation by the authorities.

The struggle for the rights of the child in Pakistan has come a long way to realise the gravity of the situation, in which children remain vulnerable to economic and social exploitation. The Constitution of Pakistan enshrines six Articles to safeguard the rights of children, which include protecting children from slavery, forced labour and employment of children under 14 in hazardous vocations, providing special protection to children, maintaining the religious identity of children at educational institutions, to provide free and compulsory education to children between the ages of five and 16 and to remove all social evils against children.

Although these injunctions do not, in spirit, fully complement the articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) that Pakistan ratified in 1997, their implementation, especially since the devolution, remain devoid of concrete state actions. The major visible problem is that there is no uniform definition of a child in the Constitution. The Child Employment Act of 1991 sets the age of employment at 14, which is in direct contradiction of the requirement to make education free and compulsory for children up to the age of 16. According to civil society organisations specialising in this field, the number of child labourers range between eight to 19 million, if the domestic sector is also included. The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) reports that among the children working as domestic labourers, around 62 percent are girls. Because of the lack of monitoring of household workers, many children, especially girls, are exploited and sometimes sexually abused by their employers.

The consideration of the age of a child is grossly discriminatory for a girl. For example, in the Hudood Ordinance, the age of the girl child is set at 16, whereas for boys it is 18. This discrimination is in direct contradiction of the articles of the UNCRC that consider an individual below the age of 18 to be a child. There are compounded vulnerabilities of children in Pakistan that are not covered by the Constitution and are insufficiently addressed by the implementing bodies, both at the national and provincial levels. In the plethora of issues that children face every day, those that suffer the most are children who belong to minority religions and poor households and suffer from physical and mental disabilities. So far, the state has failed to take adequate steps to counter discrimination against children. For the protection of the rights of children, the child protection bodies have been set up at the provincial level, with the exception of Balochistan and FATA. Though the government has set up the Child Protection Management System (CPMIS), with the help of UNICEF, it remains ineffective.

Birth registration takes place and children are issued a B-Form, until they reach the age of 18, when they are issued National ID cards. The children of refugees are issued similar cards, but they are deprived of the basic rights that other Pakistani children enjoy. There have also been budget cuts by the government that forced the Basic Education for Afghan Refugees to curtail its activities, resulting in the expulsion of about 20,000 Afghan refugee children from schools. The Bengalis and Biharis remain stateless in Pakistan, along with the Rohingiyas from Myanmar. Their children suffer the most as they are not issued ID cards or registered births, thus depriving them of their basic rights in Pakistan. They are also discouraged from seeking legal help whenever they come into conflict with the law. Apart from the risks that refugee children face, thousands of children have been displaced due to the war on terror and are subjected to extreme hardships.

Discrimination on the basis of religion is a concern that needs proper redress. Not only are the minorities considered social outcasts, but they also face extreme difficulties in attaining education on merit. According to the policy, a Hafiz-e-Quran gets 20 extra points, whereas a non-Muslim does not get any, resulting in them not meeting the standards in highly competitive educational institutes. Although the government allows for the non-Muslim students to choose ethics studies over Islamiyat subject, as is also enshrined in the constitution, in application this does not happen due to the lack of availability of ethics books and/or teachers trained in the subject. As a result, non-Muslim children become plagued by a confused identity, which is a gross violation of their dignity and religion. Although there have been attempts by the state to promote interfaith harmony, they loses their appeal because of growing intolerance and bigotry.

Children belonging to poor families are forced to attend dilapidated schools, in which the quality of education is poor and negligible. Consequently, their poor analytical skills and critical thinking make these children incapable of landing decent jobs in the future and they remain in the vicious cycle of poverty. Harmful practices against children, including child abuse, go on with impunity and unfortunately lack prioritisation by the authorities. The Sindh government adopted the Child Marriages Restraint Act, much to the dismay of the religious parties, who continue to advocate that marriageable age be in sync with Islam. In its attempt to curb child marriages, the Punjab government has levied harsher penalties on those responsible for child marriages, including clerics and parents. These are good precedents for other provinces to follow but the Council of Islamic Ideology strongly opposes them, as it considers such a ban to be un-Islamic. The implementation of these new laws is a test of time to see the fruits that they may bear. With more than 40 percent of the total population under the age of 19 years, attempts to curb vulnerabilities should become a primary focus of the country in the long run, as the number of crimes against children grows. Pakistan must make a stern policy to propagate and safeguard the rights of children to protect this country’s future.