Child Protection, Issues and Measures
The recent episode of Jwandai Jazbey (Alive Spirit) discussed the challenges and measures for child protection in a detailed manner taking child protection as the primary responsibility of the state and prevention of child abuse as the dire need of state and society to cope up the existing situation of child abuse.
The first guest, Ms. Rubina, Deputy Director Social Welfare and Women Empowerment, was of the view that according to the Constitution of Pakistan, the legal age of someone to be put in the category of child is 18 years, and as per our constitution state is bound to provide protection to the rights of every citizen including child rights. Starting from the birthright till the educational facilities and other social rights are the responsibility of the state to provide children with.
She elaborated that the concept of child abuse is in the contemporary scenario is a wide spectrum phenomenon which is not only limited to the physical harm of a child, even the corporal punishments are given to the children in an educational institution is also included in the child abuse spectrum.
She further said that the state has rehabilitation centres and help lines established for reformation and reporting the crime related to child abuse. On the question of penalties, she said that their child abuse is a non bailable offence followed by the cash penalty and even execution.
The second guest, Mr. Imran Takkar, a social worker was of the view that child abuse is a phenomenon not only related to the abduction or physical abuse rather it includes various other forms for example mental torture and even abusive language or naming calling to a child.
He said that there are child courts which are properly functioning in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Peshawar. There is a dire need and responsibility of society as well as parents to give basic sexual education to the children and spread the word of awareness about the bad touch of any person and in this regard the responsibility of media is also important in playing its part as the fourth and responsible pillar of the state.
The first report prepared by Mr. Muhammad Rehan shared that because of less awareness and education children become prey to child abuse. These child abuse cases are happening on daily basis but couldn’t report in mainstream media neither are proper mechanism established for penalties and execution in the tribal districts due to which instead of decreasing the ratio of child abuse cases these are increasing on a large scale.
One call was received during the show.
About Sabawoon:
Sabawoon airs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the merged tribal Areas (FATA) since 2011. It began as a counter-radicalization, strategic communications program, designed to highlight and promote the fundamental governance values such as democracy, rule of law, women’s rights, equal citizenry, and social cohesion.
The show airs Tuesday through Thursday every week under three themes on FM-101.5 Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan 711 kHz from 3:15 PM to 4:00 PM.
On Tuesday, Jarga Maraka covers current affairs and important regional issues with input from government and other senior officials. On Wednesday, Jwandai Jazbey airs and deals with issues of relevance to, and significance for, youth, students. Issues of Women and socio-cultural affairs are discussed in Ranra on Thursday.
The primary objective of the show has been to underline the criticality of UDHR along with constitutionalism, fundamental rights, public accountability and the rule of law for countering extremism illegalities of all forms.