ISLAMABAD: Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) launched its annual State of Pakistan's Children 2013 report here on Thursday highlights the dismal state of child rights and child protection in the country.
The report provided an annual overview of developments in sector that are of special importance to children including; child rights, juvenile justice, education, health, violence against children and child labor.
According to the report Pakistan is far from reaching its health related Millenimum Development Goals 2015 and education related Education For All (EFA) goals. Throughout 2013, both the education and health sectors remained marred by inadequate resources, corruption and a dismal state of service delivery.
The report findings, presented by SPARC's Research and Communication Officers Zohair Waheed, Ali Nabi Nur and Maheen Shaiq, stated that in 2013-14, the situation was further compounded with the outbreak of the polio virus in the conflict affected areas of the country and subsequent attacks on health workers who were tasked with administering anti-polio vaccination to the children.
Furthermore, latest estimates reveal that approximately 25 million children of school going age are out of schools. Poor and vulnerable, a large number of these children often end up providing cheap labor to the burgeoning informal sector of the economy in Pakistan.
According to the latest estimates by leading international organizations, there are more than ten million child laborers in Pakistan. The report highlighted that in spite of these shocking figures, successive governments have done little to effectively address the growing menace of underage employment in the country, the report said.
Throughout 2013, no provincial laws on child and bonded labor were passed and the administrative set up to deal with the employment of underage workers remained severely hampered by under staffing, lack of knowledge of child labor legislation and inadequate resources.
The report further revealed that children in Pakistan continued to face institutionalized and criminal forms of violence whereby they were subjected to corporal punishment in homes, schools and places of work, sexual abuse, acid attacks, harmful traditional practices, and involvement in armed conflict.
The report calls for immediate action, both at the levels of government and civil society to address the multifaceted problems that afflict the children in Pakistan. There is also dire need to apprise children of their rights and to mobilize parents and relevant stakeholders to act as a pressure group overseeing the implementation of laws, policies and programs pertaining to child rights and child protection.
On the occasion Hassan Mangi, Director General Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights and board member SPARC, Anees Jillani also spoke on the occasion and stated that violation of child rights is a continuous phenomenon in our society, nutrition, child labor, violence remains to be the grave issues.
The launch was attended by representatives from the government, media and civil society. The Chief Guests for the occasion was Ms. Kashmala Tariq, a social activist and former parliamentarian.
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