Federal Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education, Zobaida Jalal has urged the representative of federal and provincial governments, donors and NGOs to extend co-operation in expediting work on 'National Plan of Action' to make children truly protected, happy and healthy. She was addressing a consultation meeting on "Finalisation of National Plan of Action on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) and Child Sexual Abuse (CSA)" organised by ministry of social welfare and special education here on Friday.
The meeting was also addressed by M. Ashraf Ali Khan, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Social Welfare, Omer Abdi, Country Representative of Unicef, Muhammad Hassan Mangi, Director of National Commission on Child Welfare Development and Manizeh Bano, Executive Director of Sahil.
The representative of different NGOs working on child rights, international donor agencies and students of different schools were also present in the meeting. The main objective of consultation with representative of different NGOs, donor agencies and government officials was to discuss the plan threadbare.
The federal minister said that exploitation and abuse of children in any form, in any sphere of life, causes physical, emotional and psychological hazards impeding personal and social development.
Zobaida Jalal said that in spite of a very child-centred approach in our religion, the customs and culture do not give enough importance to children's feelings and their defined rights as active evolving citizens.
She said that 'South Asian Strategy' strongly recommended adequate allocation of resources to counter commercial sexual exploitation of children and to protect them from pornography on Internet by focusing on awareness campaign.
M. Ashraf Ali Khan, Joint Secretary informed the participants of meeting that commercial sexual exploitation of children includes practices that are demeaning, degrading and many times life threatening to children.
He said that child sexual abuse and exploitation involves violation of the victim's body, privacy, honour and rights to freedom and no religion approves it.