Leadership committed to protecting child's rights: adviser

The advisor to Chief Minister Sindh on social welfare, Shamim Mumtaz, has said that the political leadership is dedicated to working for promotion and protection of the rights of the children.
Addressing the concluding session of two days capacity building training of districts' focal persons on child rights and child protection organized by Sindh Child Protection Authority in collaboration with DevCon an association for rural development, Shamim Mumtaz, emphasized that children are our future so there is no room for compromise on the rights and protection of children.
She said that the Sindh Social Welfare Department is busy devising future road map and policies as well for the protection of children. She said that this training aims at enhancing the capacity of officers in creating friendly environment for our children to flourish in every field and all walks of life.
Chief Executive Officer DevCon, Nisar Ahmed Nizamani, said that the association had been engaged with SWD on child protection since 2010 through piloting of Child Protection Unit (CPU) model in different districts of Sindh.
The model had proved an effective referral mechanism which envisaged heavy engagement of duty bearers especially the government agencies.
Child Rights Trainer, Iqbal Ahmed Detho, emphasized on the role of coordination mechanisms between police, Woman Development Department, and medico-legal services for the children who haven been the victims of abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation in the society.
He said that Sindh Child Protection Authority Act -2011 has the mandate of licensing, monitoring and regulation of Child Protection Institutions both in public and private sectors.
He further told that Child Protection Units at districts level needed resource allocation so that they could effectively deal with cases lodged at these units. The faculty member of Sindh Judicial Academy, Shahid Shafique, conducted brainstorming session with the participants through creating a hypothetical situation analysis.
The exercise aimed at making participants understand their role as Child Protection Officers and the appropriate provision in the law for dealing with protection and child abuse related cases. He also briefed participants on the Sindh Children Act 1955 and role of judiciary in dealing with the cases of children. The Secretary Social Welfare, Alia Shahid, and Director General Sindh Child Protection Authority, Hafeezullah Abbasi, also spoke on the occasion.