Day: December 29, 2023

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department (ESED) in collaboration with non-government organisations on Thursday launched a project to mitigate gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children in 1,000 schools in 13 districts of the province.

Gender Mainstreaming and GBV for Human Capital Investment Project (KP-HCIP) was launched with the assistance of Rozan and Strengthening Participatory Organisation at a seminar, according to a statement issued here.

On the occasion, Shazia Ata, deputy secretary ESED, said the objective of the project was to create a safe learning environment for children. “The aim of the project is to reach 1,000 schools, conducting comprehensive training sessions with schoolteachers, representatives of parent-teacher councils, village network forums and village education committees.

“These sessions will focus on addressing issues of gender-based violence, violence against children, sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse with sensitivity and efficiency. The training will empower 1,000 focal persons to effectively address these issues, ensuring the implementation of the code of conduct and grievance and referral mechanics,” she explained.

Shazia Ata said additionally, interactive sessions with children from each of these schools would also be conducted. “In total 10,000 to 15,000 children and school staff, including teachers, administrators, and community representatives from each school, will gain awareness of these policies and actively contribute to their implementation.”

Fouzia Yasmin, deputy director Rozan, said the NGO was a non-profit organisation focused on mental and emotional health, and committed to working for a violence-free society while employing strategies like awareness raising, research, counseling, advocacy, training and capacity building.

Nilofar Bakhtiar, chairperson National Commission on Status of Women, said every third women faced violence and a child was abused every two hours in Pakistan. She said this was also a fact that reported cases were just a tip of the ice berg. “The project launched today is a direct response to these challenges.”

She said collaboration between the governments, education department, CSOs the World Bank signalled a commitment to a multi-faceted approach to not only address gender disparities and GBV, but also to integrate solutions within educational institutions, aiming to mitigate issues of violence against children and gender mainstreaming in schools,” she said.

Source: Dawn

karachi: A sessions court has sentenced a man to 10-year imprisonment for raping a teenage girl.

Faryad was found guilty of sexually abusing his friend’s sister, said to be aged between 13 and 14 years, at her home in the Urdu Bazaar area in April 2023.

Additional Sessions Judge-III (South) Ashraf Hussain Khowaja pronounced his order after recording evidence and final arguments from both the defence and prosecution sides.

He ruled that the prosecution had successfully proved the charge on the accused, sentencing him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The convict was also ordered to pay a Rs100,000 fine or else undergo an additional six-month imprisonment.

The judge observed that he had taken a lenient view while awarding sentence to the convict because he was young and the first time offender. He, however, acquitted the convict’s brother, Shahzad, of the charge of abetting the crime.

The state prosecutor had argued that on April 11, 2023, Faryad sexually abused the minor girl at her home in the Urdu Bazaar area after the co-accused Shahzad deceitfully took her mother to a clinic for treatment, leaving the girl alone and thereby helping his brother to commit the crime.

Advocate Bahzad Akbar of the Legal Aid Society, who represented the complainant, contended that the medical and circumstantial evidence corroborated the prosecution version. Moreover, the victim in her statement fully implicated the accused, the counsel said, pleading with the judge to punish the accused for assaulting the minor.

In her testimony, the victim deposed that she was at her home along with her younger brother and mother when Shahzad called her mother on phone and asked her to accompany him to a nearby clinic for he was sick. Therefore, her mother went to hospital with Shahzad, she recounted, adding that thereafter, Faryad came at their door but her neighbour asked him to come when her mother is at home.

She testified that Faryad went away but returned 10 minutes later. Her younger brother opened the door as she was busy in cleaning the house, she said and added that he took her to the room and locked the door from inside and raped her.

Source: The News