THE National Commission on the Rights of the Child recently published its first-ever report of data, challenges and recommendations on the State of Children in Pakistan, 2024.
While the state of child rights remains dismal in Pakistan, this government-owned reflective report is a welcome change from the time when similar reports by civil society would not only be rejected, but at times, actively discouraged from being published as that would bring a bad name to the country.
The real challenge going forward would be for the commission to garner enough support and ownership from the government machinery and relevant departments to put the recommendations into practice in a coordinated manner.
As the government addresses the recommendations that have been given in the report, it would be important to shed light on some aspects of violence that are not only stand-alone issues but which also intersect with children’s experiences of other forms of violence and impact health, education and the overall rights of the child.
The first aspect is related to children’s exposure to violence against women at home and its intersectionality with violent disciplining. In a Unicef briefing note of 2024, available data had indicated that one in four children live with a mother or caregiver who is experiencing intimate partner violence. There is a higher likelihood of these children being impacted in the same way as with direct experiences of violence, and of them also being violently disciplined by adults.
These multiple experiences of violence can negatively impact the birthweight of children, under-five mortality and the mental and social development of a child. It may also make children vulnerable to both adult experiences of violence and to perpetrating violence on others.
Violence can negatively impact children in a number of ways.
The second aspect that needs mention and research is related to the bullying and violence perpetrated by children on other children in schools, at home and in play and work settings — both online and offline. In a Unicef study, 60.1 per cent of children from Grade 5 to Grade 7 reported being bullied by their peers or older children.
In my personal experience of working with schools, bullying — both online and offline — is, unfortunately, common and often goes unrecognised and/ or remains unaddressed. It shows its impact on the students’ mental well-being, academic achievement, absenteeism and behaviour towards other children.
Themes of bullying may arise from the discriminatory and reductive views about girls and women, minority, disability and transgender groups. The false notions of machismo among boys, which is internalised through societal messaging, contributes towards the acceptance of bullying as ‘cool’, ‘manly’, and ‘acceptable’ behaviour. Data given in the commission’s child rights report shows that an overwhelming majority of undertrial or convicted children are males, and their crimes range from theft, drug peddling to rape/ sodomy, unnatural offences and murder.
It is indeed the need of the hour for the commission to steer the child rights agenda and collectively work with the women’s rights, health, social protection, education, legal and livelihood departments as well as the private sector to prioritise, commit and allocate the required resources for addressing these interlinked issues.
For example, all the initiatives that are aimed at addressing violence against women must have a component on violence against children and positive parenting and vice versa; nutrition and health-based programmes need to address the impact of direct and indirect experiences of violence; mental health programmes would need to address the nexus of poverty, violence and psychosocial factors that impact well-being; and school-based and correction facilities/ borstal institutes’ violence prevention programmes for children must have an important component on toxic masculinity, bullying and prejudice.
It is important that these initiatives begin much before children reach the stage of adolescence.
Challenging prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes towards gender, class, disability, religious and gender identities; developing tolerance and acceptance for differences; unpacking harmful notions of ‘family honour’, violence being a family matter; and viewing children as personal property already highlighted in the various sections of the child rights report, would need to be a crosscutting, ongoing theme for all levels of preventive, response and rehabilitative work.
The writer is a mental health professional.
Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2025
