LARKANA: Participants of a consultative meeting have stressed that the state is responsible for providing basic rights of health, education, healthy nutrition and suitable living environment to children.

The meeting was held the other day with stakeholders on human rights under the auspices of the Civil Society Support Programme in collaboration with the Social Welfare Department Larkana and Rights of Expression, Association, Assembly and Thought (REAP) Network at a local hotel.

Government officers, policemen, lawyers, social activists, minority leaders, journalists and persons with disabilities attended the meeting.

The participants discussed violations of the rights of women, minorities, children and persons with disabilities.

Speaking on the occasion, advocate Abdul Rehman Bhutto said Pakistan had ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which underlined the fundamental principles of treating children in schools and homes. But, according to him, incidents of corporal punishment on children are on the rise.

Prof Mukhtiar Samo said the number of street children in urban centres had increased in recent years. Though there was no official data available regarding their number, it was widely assumed that more than 1.5 million children were living and working on the streets of Pakistan, he said. Street children were more vulnerable to abuse from criminal gangs, drug addicts and beggars mafia who used them in criminal activities, Mr Samo said.

Dr Ameer Abro, district officer of the social welfare department, who did his Ph.D from the University of Karachi on the topic of ‘Street Children’, said there were a number of laws in the country regarding protection of child rights, but there was little implementation due to which a huge population of children was suffering.

The penal on child rights discussed in detail the legislation done so far and formed opinion that slow process of enactment of laws reflected how important children were for the policy makers.

Pakistan had signed United Nations Convention on Child Rights in 1990, but the situation of children in Pakistan remained precarious and nothing significant had been done to implement the convention, the panelists said.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014