Day: November 20, 2015

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SMU launches motorbike training for women

Women Training

By: Akbar Bajwa

LAHORE: The Special Monitoring Unit’s Law and Order Wing on Thursday launched a campaign for raising awareness on gender-based violence and harassment on streets through a campaign named Women on Wheels (WoW). The campaign is aimed at increasing women’s mobility and presence in public spaces by providing them free lessons in motorbike driving.

An information session was held at the Traffic Police Driving School. As many as 70 women from lawmakers to domestic workers, attended the event. SMU’s Salman Sufi, Chief Traffic Officer Tayyab Hafeez Cheema and MPAs Farhana Afzal and Marie Gill addressed the participants of the training. The speakers encouraged the participants and highlighted the advantages of learning to ride motorbikes.

Against all odds: On her motorcycle, 26-year-old girl glides through Karachi

Sufi said the SMU initiative aimed to empower women and make public space more accessible. This campaign is part of the United Nation’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence from November 26 to December 10.

Under the programme, female traffic wardens will conduct training sessions with flexible timings. In December, a WoW motorcycle rally would be organised on Shaukat Khanum Road. Registration for training for the motorbike rally has begun. Women wishing to join the rally were directed to send an email with their name, their CNICs and phone numbers to SMUCMO@gmail.com after which short-listed candidates would be contacted and provided with free training lessons.He said the traffic police had extended support for the exercise. A public announcement for the rally will be held on December 20 at Traffic Police Driving School, Thokar Niaz Baig. He said Honda had rented out 11 motorbikes for the training at reduced rates.

Sufi said the Department for Women Development has also been taken on board. He said the department would give preference to women participating in the rally in December for provision of scooters as part of their Women Empowerment Initiatives.

Women on the roads of Pakistan

The lawmakers said that for far too long, Pakistani women had been embarrassed, assaulted and harassed in public.

They said it was time for women to reclaim public spaces. “Their mobility should not be hindered. They should feel independent,” lawmakers said.

Salman Sufi said women could also contact them through the Women on Wheels Facebook page.

He said the WoW aimed to increase women’s mobility by challenging the social perceptions that women cannot or should not travel alone.

Express Tribune

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Girl rescued from being sold in marriage

By: Riaz Ahmad

PESHAWAR: Police arrested seven people and foiled an attempt to sell off a 14-year-old girl for marriage in Lajbar Kala area of Daudzai police station.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Daudzai SHO Ijaz Khan said the force raided Lajbar Kala area and arrested seven persons, who were residents of Punjab and were looking to buy a minor girl for marriage.

Abolishing child marriages

“Rubina*, a student of class seven, tried to lie and mislead us during interrogation but eventually told us the truth,” Ijaz said. “She also told us that her father had sold her mother repeatedly,” he added. “The man had adopted this as a profession.”

According to Ijaz, Rubina said, “My mother was sold by my father into a marriage in Punjab from where she escaped after some time and returned home.” She added her father then sold the woman again and shifted her to Afghanistan. The SHO said this time, the man sold his daughter and told her to go with an “aunt” who was in fact the agent. “She was sold for Rs0.15 million,” he said.

Breaking tradition, India’s child brides fight for freedom

Ijaz added Rubina was produced before a magistrate where she declined to go with her father and was sent to a child protection unit instead.

The twist

“This group is a professional one which buys and sells girls who are trained as brides,” Ijaz added. “It is still unclear whether the girl was the real daughter of the man or not.”

Express Tribune

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Pakistan’s child rights record under scrutiny

By: Arshad Mahmood

How many of us know that there was a National Plan of Action for Children that was adopted in 2006; that there is no independent National Commission on the Rights of Children; that 352,000 children in Pakistan die before their fifth birthday; that 45 per cent of children are malnourished; that there is a need to protect children belonging to marginalised groups from violence, forced marriages and forced conversions; that the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill is still pending; that the minimum legal age for criminal responsibility is still only seven years; that the minimum age of marriage for girls is still 16 (except in Sindh); that no specific programmes have been initiated for children with disabilities to enable them to enjoy their rights and to prevent their marginalisation and abandonment.

We all know that budgetary allocation for children is still a mere six per cent of GDP. Pakistan has the highest bottle-feeding and lowest exclusive breastfeeding for six months rates in South Asia. No child labour survey has been conducted since 1996 and no specific measures have been taken to combat the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. There is still denial regarding the perpetration of child sexual abuse despite scandals like Kasur surfacing.

These are just a few of the issues included in a list prepared by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which was drawn up between October 5-9. The Committee has requested the government for written replies vis-a-vis this list before March 1, 2016. This is part of the scrutiny of the states that are a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). They are required to submit periodic reports focusing on the implementation of the Convention every five years. The government submitted its fifth periodic report to the UN Committee on May 23, 2015, which was actually due on December 11, 2012. The Pakistani civil society was also invited to submit alternative reports by June 30, 2015 and many organisations submitted their various alternative reports. A plenary session is due to be held between May 17 and June 3, 2016 where the government will be scrutinised for the state of child rights in Pakistan by the Committee. Following the plenary session, the Committee will adopt concluding observations and recommendations for the government and other stakeholders to follow.

Having a look at the government’s report, as well as the alternative reports submitted by the civil society, one realises that Pakistan is still far from achieving any significant milestones in making rights enshrined in the UNCRC a reality for the children of the country. The federal and provincial governments must immediately address the issues that have been raised. All pending bills related to children must be enacted, including the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill, the Child Protection (Criminal Laws) Amendment Bill, the Child Marriages Restraint (Amendment) Bill and the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill.

At the provincial level, Sindh needs to ensure implementation of the Sindh Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy, the Sindh Protection and Promotion of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Act 2013, the Sindh Right to Free and Compulsory Education 2013 and the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act 2014. Notification of rules of business and budgetary allocations with robust monitoring systems should be put in place immediately in accordance with the UNCRC. The Punjab Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill must also be enacted and an independent commission should be established for the protection of child rights. Punjab should also enact comprehensive child protection legislation as the current Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2007 is limited in scope. Similarly, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) should immediately enact the K-P Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill and the K-P Child Marriages Restraint Bill. K-P should make sufficient budgetary allocation for the implementation of the K-P Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010, to establish a child protection system in the province. It should also implement the K-P Borstal Institutions Act 2012 and establish such institutions for juvenile inmates in Bannu, Peshawar and Haripur. Balochistan needs to enact the long-awaited Balochistan Child Protection and Welfare Bill and the Balochistan Child Marriages Restraint Bill.

I hope that by June 2016, when the concluding observations and recommendations will be adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Pakistan’s fifth periodic report, the National Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill would have been enacted and that a commission would have been established to ensure effective implementation of the concluding observations and recommendations of the Committee. This could play a huge role in improving the state of child rights in Pakistan.

Express Tribune

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