Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Children’s Day and Pakistan

Universal Children’s’ Day was observed globally on November 20. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was passed on 20th November 1989 to incorporate the full range of rights to children. Pakistan ratified the Convention for the Rights of the child in 1990.
Since its ratification, the issues of children were overshadowed in Pakistan repeatedly and the Convention did not serve as a guaranteed saviour for children in Pakistan.
Education, security and social rights were not well attended, both on social and political platforms during the last two decades. In Pakistan, the government prepared a few plans of action to meet the country’s commitments to a range of issues related to children. A child protection bill was also drafted towards prevention and protection of children. Like these, many documents were passed but didn’t reap any thing.
Pakistan offers worse conditions for children than any other country in South Asia, partially because the government has failed to implement legislation and international conventions which would improve conditions for children. Children were mostly subjected to ignorance and violations to children rights were clearly observed. Many issues related to children were revealed which shed light on the reality that there were more issues than solutions.
Child abuse is routinely practised in Pakistan while law and enforcement agencies ignore children’s plea.
The culprits are freely trapping children to satisfy their lust. Unfortunately, rarely is the problem addressed since the topic is considered a taboo, and there is an incorrect impression that the problem does not exist.
Child labour is commonly observed due to high illiteracy and poverty rate in Pakistan. Children are often forced to work rather provided with an opportunity to study, particularly in rural areas. The dreams of children are often shattered because government is not implementing any laws with a serious attitude.
Children’s education too is in a dismal state. Most of the public schools are termed as ghost schools where no adequate facilities and teaching staffs are available. In private and public schools, corporal punishment and verbal abuse is the result of violence among children.
Moreover, the ethics and moral values are not being taught to children. Pakistan was graded last in the Asian Pacific Countries’ School Report Card published in 2005 by the South Asian Pacific Bureau of Adult Education. The dismal result comes as no surprise, considering the low investment of less than 2.3 per cent of the GDP on education.
Majority of children suffers from basic deficiencies due to poor health indicators.
These entire bleak situations are mainly due to a lack of vision and the unbalanced policies and priorities of the people at the helms of affairs.
Every child has a right to live his/her life free from violence, including corporal/physical punishment and humiliating and degrading punishment.
We request the government to take practical steps to save our future generations.

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