HYDERABAD: The district and provincial governments were urged by children to include peasants and rural workers’ children in programmes and policies to safeguard their future and guarantee their right to life, survival, health, and education in the province.
Children of different school clubs in Benazirabad had gathered in a fun fair organized by the Hari Welfare Association (HWA) and the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to mark Universal Children’s Day and its theme on ‘Equality and inclusion.’ HWA organizes children’s clubs.
Child club leader Maryam said that in 2021; 885 cases of violence against children were reported in Sindh, including 455 sexual abuse, 139 abductions, 245 missings, and 47 child marriages. The most vulnerable districts in the context of child sexual abuse were Khairpur, Karachi, Dadu, Sanghar and Nusheroferoz. These cases reveal the protection of children is not ensured by the state and the relevant authorities in every manner.
He added that in 2020; 861 cases of violence against children were reported including 390 cases of child sexual abuse, 190 children being abducted, 231 cases of missing children, and 81 cases of child marriages. Another Child club leader Anas shared that in 2016-17 Pakistan Education Statistics reported 6.4 million children, including 3.3 million girls, were out of school in the province. They were deprived of their fundamental right to education. In 2019, 10.5 percent of schools in Sindh had Children with Disabilities (CWDs), and 0.11 percent of children in schools have one or other disabilities. In Sindh, 36.2 percentages of CWDs were girls; and 63.8 percent were boys.
Child club leader added that these out-of-school children were unable to attend school because of poverty, no nearby schools, lack of government’s interest to invest in education, lack of awareness, and higher rates of corporal punishment.
Alishba a Child Club leader stated that the higher illiteracy rate results from a feudal structure that forces the poor to stay in the cycle of poverty and marginalization. He also said that most of the schools in the province were without basic facilities, which hampered education. He added that in some areas, schools did not exist if these existed but without school buildings.
The president of the HWA, Akram Ali Khaskheli, informed that the Sindh Education and Literacy Department’s budget increased from Rs.197.368 billion in 2020-21 to Rs.222.102 billion in 2021-22. The authorities have always claimed an increase in funding, yet 6.4 million children are out of school and the number of schools has decreased. The GoS has been receiving loans from foreign donors like JICA, World Bank, European Union, and USAID. This dependency on foreign donors for education is dangerous, especially for the primary and secondary education sectors.
He said that the total number of schools was 49211 in 2006-07, but that number dropped to 42,383 in 2016-17. Similarly, female schools decreased considerably from 8958 in 2007-08 to 5,385 in 2016-17, despite being already few. It is a concerning state of affairs in education. Following the 18th Amendment, the GoS began to receive greater finances from the federal government. However, instead of expanding, the number of schools has fallen.
HWA observed that thousands of schools have turned into cattle pens due to the sheer criminal negligence of the concerned authorities. The HWA estimates that there are over 1.7 million bonded laborers in Sindh; of them, over 7 lacs are children who are forced to work and live in agriculture under deplorable conditions by their landowners. According to statistics gathered by the HWA, 3529 children, including infants as young as a few weeks old, were released from the custody of landowners in the agricultural sector between 2013 and 2021 on the decisions of courts in Sindh. 445 children were released in 2021.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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