Project to Curb Child Labor Misdirected
A $4million project titled Mitigating Child Labor through Education in Pakistan, a joint effort by Save the Children, UK and the US Department of Labor was launched on March 30, in Islamabad.
The project aims at withdrawing 15,000 working and at risk children from exploitative work through education and vocational training in the NWFP, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Balochistan between 2006 and 2009.
Speaking at the ceremony federal education minister said “This project may be a big contribution but it’s misdirected. Donor organizations must consult the government and give sustainable projects which would benefit the people. We need more vocational institutes to turn children into productive citizens.”
Child population in NWFP in 5-14 age groups is 6.71 million. Over 1.6 million are involved in labor. Child population in Peshawar is 803,345 and it is 117,151 in Khyber Agency. Out of the total number, only 370,027 are enrolled in schools. Over 551,124 children are either involved in labor or are at risk. There are more than 5,500 auto workshops, furniture, shoe factories and carpet weaving centers in Peshawar alone where children are employed.
In Balochistan children are involved in worst forms of labor besides arms and drugs smuggling in the border towns. Child labor incidence in Quetta alone is around 80%. Some work in auto workshops and farms while many are scavengers. How is this project going to make a difference in the light of the above grim statistics? The Minister asked.
Bill to Ban Quran Marriages
The government will present a bill in parliament to eliminate the custom of girls marrying the Quran. The bill, which would be called the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2005, has been prepared in light of recommendations made by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII).
The bill would seek an amendment to Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860). It terms the marriages of girls to the Quran as a desecration of the holy book and sets the maximum punishment for the offense as life imprisonment. “The proposed bill seeks to eliminate the un-Islamic, evil and inhuman custom of so-called marriage of a woman with the Holy Quran and practice of Haq Bakhswana, whereby a woman is made to swear on the Holy Quran that she will never marry anyone in her lifetime. This not only tantamount to desecration of the Islamic institution of marriage and denial of women’s rights of inheritance, right to choose, and right to marry as per the injunctions of Islam, but also defile the Holy Quran,” says the objects and reasons of the bill.
Over 25,000 Children Not Enrolled in Dir
As many as 25,169 children out of 104,498 aged between five and seven years in the Lower Dir district do not attend schools, according to a survey conducted by the Universal Primary Education (UPE) project of the NGO Khwaendo Kor (KK). Program facilitator said that of these out-of-school children, 19% were boys and 30% girls.
He said KK would establish community based primary schools for girls to bridge the huge gender disparity in education. Similarly, he said that under the district education plan, KK would provide information on all resources that were available to the district under different heads. There are 911 villages in the district, 110 private schools, 762 primary schools, 80 middle schools, 49 high schools and 11 higher secondary schools for boys and 383 primary schools, 58 middle schools, 13 high schools and two higher secondary schools for girls.
Cleric Booked for Forcing Student to get Jihad Training
Police registered a case on April 3 against a seminary cleric for allegedly keeping a student in illegal confinement and forcing him to go abroad for jihad training. Musaddiq Malik, 14, suffered multiple injuries in an abortive attempt to escape. However, his parents succeeded to get him freed after searching for him for two days. The cleric is still on the run.
The boy was admitted to a seminary about two years back, where the accused cleric was his teacher. Later the Madressah’s management sacked the cleric because of his dubious activities. He then opened his own seminary. Police sources said the cleric “developed relations” with the boy and “hypnotized” him to go abroad for jihad training. They said that Malik took Rs 200,000 from his parents and gave it to the cleric for the “holy cause”.
On Monday, Malik managed to escape and the cleric chased him. While running on the road, Malik was hit by a car and was caught. The cleric took him to a hospital and again confined him. Later, his parents freed him. Malik told police that he had given the cleric Rs 200,000 to send him to Afghanistan for jihad training. He said that the cleric tortured him when he asked for his money back.
Countrywide Anti-Polio Campaign
A three-day national polio immunization campaign started in the whole of Pakistan on January 24. As many as 75,000 mobile teams had been formed nationwide by the health ministry and provincial governments to immunize over 32 million children against polio. About 150,000 workers will visit door-to-door to administer anti-polio drops to the children. Only 24 cases of polio have been detected in 17 districts of the country till December 2005.WHO representative in Pakistan said only 27 cases was reported in 2005. “We have an effective surveillance system in the country to detect and provide treatment to children against the diseases," he said. |
KARACHI, Oct 27: Parents of 18-year-old Tasleem Solangi, who was killed in an extremely inhumane manner allegedly by some elders of her tribe, have appealed to President and Sindh Chief Minister to provide them protection as “killers are still at large and have not been arrested because of their connections with police”.
