Investment in Children
By
Dr Irshad Danish
Pakistan society
has one of the highest proportions of children and youth in the world. Of total
180 million, children under 18 account for approximately 50% of the total
population, with over 38% of children under five underweight, a shortage of 50%
in needed primary education infrastructure, and only 27% of children registered
with the state at birth. Around 85 million children and young persons under the
age of 18 need investment for their education, health and security.
During
a course of time, Pakistan has shown its commitment to international human
rights conventions through ratification of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), ILO Conventions 182 and 138, related to worst forms of
child labour and minimum age for entry into child labour and the signing of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Most recently Pakistan has shown its
commitment to international human rights standards through ratification of
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),
Convention against Torture (CAT), International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
and Optional Protocol to the UNCRC on Child Trafficking, Child Prostitution and
Pornography whereas the ratification of the UNCRC Optional Protocol on the
Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict is pending. Pakistan is also a member
of Human Rights Council.
Besides
above stated international commitments, Pakistan introduced national level
legislation including
the
Juvenile Justice System Ordinance in 2000 (JJSO), the Employment of Children
Act 1991; and few laws introduced at the provincial level such as the Punjab
Compulsory Primary Education Act 1994, the NWFP Compulsory Primary Education
Act 1996, the Sindh Compulsory Primary Education Ordinance 2001, the ICT
Compulsory Primary Education Ordinance 2002. The Federally Administered Areas
Compulsory Primary Education Regulation 2002, the Punjab Destitute and
Neglected Children Act 2004, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and
Welfare Act 2010 and the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011. In addition
these legislations, the National Policy and Plan of Action for Children was
approved by the federal cabinet in 2006. It is also appreciable that recently
Government of Pakistan has enacted “Islamabad
Capital Territory Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act” to fulfill the commitments
as per article 25-A of Constitution of Pakistan.
Despite
a wonderful record of commitments by present and previous governments to
fulfill concrete goals for children’s well-being, and reaffirmations made a
number of times subsequent progress of state has been below expectations. Government
has yet to undertake solid steps for the implementation of all the above
mentioned laws such as notification of Rules, budgetary allocation and
establishment of relevant infrastructure. Both the federal and provincial
governments are under obligation to take concrete measures for improving
situation of child rights as entitled by the Constitution as well as the
UNCRC.
The
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child while considering Pakistan’s consolidated
3rd and 4th Periodic Report observed that the concluding observations of the
second periodic report have not yet been implemented or insufficiently
implemented, including those relating to the harmonisation of the laws with the
Convention, improved coordination and the national and local levels, the
establishment of a monitoring mechanism, resource allocation for children among
other steps.
It
is well proven fact that investment on Children’s health, education and
protection has very high economic returns. Therefore now most of countries are
focusing on development of children to secure future of their nations.
Considering
importance of child focused budgeting, Child Rights Movement (CRM), a coalition
of more than 100 NGOs has conducted a child focused budget analysis and made
its findings public on December 19, 2012. The report reveals that Pakistan
spent only 2.37 percent on education and 2.20 percent on health as a percentage
of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2010-11 which is lower than what most South
Asian Countries had allocated. While in 2012-13 Pakistan allocated 0.622
percent of GNP (Gross National Product) for child focused education, 0.107
percent on child focused health and 0.02 percent on child focused social
welfare. The sum of all allocations for child focused health, education and
social welfare is 0.75 percent of the total GNP which indicates that low
priority has been given to children and their schemes, programs and
projects. The report also reflects that
the country allocated 2.23 percent of GNP for Defense and 2.44 percent of GNP
for subsidies which is greater than the total allocations made for children in
Pakistan i.e. 0.75 percent of GNP. The report shows that the budgetary
allocations made by the federal and provincial governments, and also sum of all
the governments’ budgetary allocations, are not enough to cater the basic needs
and rights of children which are almost 50 percent of the total population.
It
is apparent that all the promises made by the government of Pakistan to its own
people and with the international community has not been fulfilled. If the
allocations are made in the same way and child focused budgets are not
increased, there is greater probability that Pakistan may have grave social,
economic and political issues in the future.
In
a cursory view , it may be perceived that health and education budgets have
been improved over course of time, however if we analyze the budget with child focus angle; budget
for children’s health, education and
social welfare is extremely low because most of the budget goes under heads of salaries,
allowances, utility bills, rents and wages, and the development budget for
children schemes, programs and projects is very nominal which in longer terms
can help to improve the efficiency and productivity of the labour force, bring
sustainability in economy and ensure bright and health future for all children
in Pakistan.
It
is regrettable that less than 1 percent
of GNP is being spent on child focused programs, schemes and projects whereas
the priorities of the governments are subsidies, grants, defense and so on
which are merely essential to run the government, which do not bring real and
long term impact/results for Pakistan. It shows as Pakistan is ready to
compromise on health, education and social welfare of children.
Rather
denying the situation, Government of Pakistan must acknowledge the facts of
report and should allocate sufficient resources as per Concluding Observations
and Recommendations of UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made during
considering 3rd and 4th State Party Report of Pakistan.
The Committee regretted over ‘extremely low’ budgetary allocations for
children, which undermines Pakistan’s “prospects of meeting its objectives to
gradually raise allocations to education to 5 percent of GDP by 2010 and to
increase annually the allocations to the health sector by 16 percent until
satisfactory health services and prevention measures are accomplished”.
Government
of Pakistan should also expedite implementation of Article 25-A allocating adequate resources to ensure Free and Compulsory
education for children aged 5-16 across the country.
Parliamentarians
and particularly members of the recently established National Assembly’s
Parliamentarians Group on Children’s Rights, Speaker of the National Assembly
and members of the Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Human
Rights must look into the pending legislation related to children and take
immediate steps towards enactment of the pending bills and urgently
establishing a body for the promotion and protection of child rights in the
country at the national level.
Writer is Child Rights Expert, based
in Islamabad and can be reached through email midanish@gmail.com and @Irshaddanish on
twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment