HYDERABAD, April 23: The joint secretary, Social Welfare Division, Islamabad, Shaukat Nawaz Tahir, has said that a 10-year “National Plan of Action” for child welfare and development is being formulated in consultation with stakeholders.

He stated this while addressing the three-day “district-level workshop”, which was organised by the Provincial Commission for Child Welfare and Development in collaboration with Unicef at a local hotel on Tuesday.

He said the District Plan of Action and Provincial Plan of Action will be considered and incorporated in the National Plan of Action.

He informed that two districts, Hyderabad and Jacobabad, have been nominated as pilot districts for preparing the District Plan of Action in Sindh province.

He said the District Plan of Action will fix the priorities, targets and prepare a strategy to protect children’s rights and combat child abuse and child crime.

He said that 11 years ago at the World Summit for Children, the world leaders had made a joint commitment and issued an urgent, universal appeal to give every child a better future by “Creating a world fit for children” and Pakistan was one of the signatories of this agreement.

He said that the first 10-year National Plan of Action was prepared in 1990 but failed due to non-participation of stakeholders.

He said that recognizing the importance of children, the government has launched different multi-purpose child projects.

He said that an early childhood development project has been launched at a cost of $30 million to look after children upto five years of age, and added, besides, the Tawana Pakistan Project has been launched in 29 poorest districts of Pakistan to contain the dropout of girl students from their schools.

He said, similarly, this workshop will formulate the District Plan of Action aimed to provide healthy atmosphere to the children.