| 18 April 2005 | Monday | 08 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
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Child protection laws
Fleecing the commuters
THE link between population growth and poverty in Pakistan has once again been highlighted, this time at a seminar in Dadu. Speakers took the view that poverty could not be eradicated unless there was a check on the rising population growth rate. Currently, official sources put the growth rate at 1.9 per cent but analysts say that this figure cannot be independently verified and fear that it is higher than what is officially quoted. Despite this, to the government’s credit, the population growth rate has been rising at a decreasing pace in the past 10 years or so. In 1981, for example, it stood at over three per cent. While this is an achievement in itself, the problem is that even at the present rate, there is a net addition of three million people annually to our total population of about 150 million. This is a very high number by any standard. At this rate, our population will reach 220 million within a decade. Given our limited resources, the country will find it hard to support such a large number of people even with our present GDP growth rate of over six per cent. Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world. It also enjoys the dubious distinction of having the largest number of people below the poverty line, estimated at over 50 million. Population growth directly affects the government’s ability to provide adequate basic services, particularly health and education. It also affects the country’s development prospects, as scarce resources have to be distributed among an increasingly large size of the population. With employment opportunities becoming scarcer as a consequence of the population hike, there is a rush from the villages to the cities by people in search of a livelihood. This puts additional strains on the urban infrastructure, services and living space. It is estimated that within the next 10 years, over 40 per cent of the total population will live in urban areas as compared to 33 per cent at present. This is being seen as a problem for the country’s agriculture sector, which produces cotton, wheat and sugarcane, the backbone of the economy. The reduction in the population growth rate notwithstanding, the government’s overall efforts in this area have not yielded the desired results. Government officials themselves concede that in the light of the success achieved in Iran and Bangladesh, the drive to reduce the population growth rate is no longer a religious issue. The problem has to do with converting people to the small family norm and providing the necessary counselling, services and facilities on an extensive scale. In this, it would make sense to involve even religious scholars as well as NGOs, who can help drive the message home. The role of the mass media in this respect is also very vital. The percentage of those living below the poverty line stands at over 34 per cent. If the government is serious about reducing poverty in the country, a more concerted attempt has to be made to reduce the population growth rate, preferably to about 1.3 per cent in the coming years. If this is achieved, the benefits of economic development in the country will begin to extend to the middle and lower middle classes, where they are most needed.
SOMEHOW Social Welfare and Special Education Minister Zobaida Jalal’s assurances that comprehensive child protection laws will be drafted within the year fail to bolster confidence that we are on our way to becoming a child-friendly society. There is reason for this pessimism as statistics in every sphere of national life concerning children speak for themselves. Not only do we have what has been termed by Unesco as the highest primary school dropout rate in the world, the figures for infant and under-five mortality are appalling. It is the same with child labour, much of which takes place in hazardous working conditions. Besides, there are issues with a more direct bearing on child protection, such as trafficking, corporal punishment and sexual abuse that, owing to cultural sensitivities, are rarely discussed and which consequently go unreported.
Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and under this, as well as under other international agreements, it is morally obliged to bring its laws into conformity with the guiding principles of child rights. In that sense, Ms Jalal’s statement is welcome as comprehensive child protection laws would bring us one step closer to the goal of a secure environment for our children. However, what has been sadly lacking so far is the enforcement of legislation that is already in place. Knowing the critical importance of child protection and welfare, it is essential to implement the rules and norms, hoping that the government would make child welfare its priority and take more positive steps in this direction. This would mean, among other things, the implementation of poverty-alleviation measures and the greater sensitization of public opinion on all aspects of child rights and protection. It is, of course, of academic interest as to how the government proposes to achieve this when its budgetary allocations for even basic human development indicators, such as health and education, fall far short of the internationally recommended figures.
A DIRECTIVE issued by the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench to the local regional transport authority to install meters in rickshaws in the city is welcome. Perhaps, the only thing disappointing about what the court has said is that it does not apply to the rest of the country, given the brazen manner in which rickshaws and taxis fleece passengers. The court was hearing a case filed as public interest litigation by a resident of Hyderabad who said that he had to pay Rs 50 to a rickshaw driver for a ride that lasted a mere two kilometres. The proceedings of the case seem to suggest that the government parties named as respondents in the petition, which included the DIG traffic and the motor vehicles inspector (MVI), appeared to be passing the blame for the sorry state of affairs.
The DIG’s remarks before the court that the petitioner did have the option of noting down the number of the rickshaw and filing a complaint with the police against the overcharging driver might seem well-intentioned. But the reality, as we all know, is that the police tend not to treat such complaints with any degree of seriousness or efficiency. Had the traffic police and the motor vehicles inspectors been doing their job properly, the situation in Hyderabad, or indeed in Lahore, Karachi or Faisalabad, would not be how it is today, with taxis and rickshaws charging passengers exorbitant fares with impunity. While the Sindh government’s counsel did not oppose the petition, he did tell the court that MVIs had been instructed not to issue fitness certificates to rickshaws without a meter. What the traffic police and the MVIs need to ensure is that such meters are in working order and that they are heeded by the drivers. At the same time, it would be good if the DIG traffic and the MVIs enforced the law requiring a meter in a rickshaw or taxi in Sindh’s other cities as well.