State of children alarming: HRCP
The government should take immediate steps to uphold rights of the children, as millions of them became vulnerable to hazardous conditions, alarms Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
The state of human rights report of HRCP says though overall situation of rights is dismal, the state of children is alarming after the last year’s floods that hit 10 million children, 2.5 million of them under age of five years.
The report also says that in 2010, 1,154 juveniles were detained in the prisons across the country. Hundreds of children are reported to have committed suicide across Pakistan while another 76 attempted suicide.
The Commission’s report tells that over one million child labourers between the ages of 10 to 14 are working in the country. Child labour and abuse of domestic child workers remained widespread in 2010 according to the report.
The report also says that the 18th amendment recognized free and compulsory education as a right for all children between 5 to 16 years of age. However, allocation of appropriate financial resources to fulfill that commitment remained absent.