Sahil, an NGO working to protect children from sexual abuse, held a consultation meeting on Wednesday where the state of adolescents in the country was discussed by the civil society members and professionals. Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world and currently has one of the largest cohorts of young people in its history adding up to approximately 25 million people falling between the ages of 15 to 24.
Beyond and below this bracket, the people from the age of nine to ninteen are referred to as adolescents. About 39.5 million people fall in the adolescents category in Pakistan but have not been identified as a separate group yet, a step that is necessary to be taken in order to maintain their needs and demands. Sahil aims to make a policy framework to identify the broad areas and the issues within these that directly affect adolescents in the meeting.
Themes that were identified during the discussion included gender balance, strong leadership and commitment and child and adolescent rights. Lack of knowledge of basic rights and sexual reproductive rights along with the lack of effective laws to protect their rights and their implementation were pointed out as the main issues. The speakers said existing adolescent specific programmes such as child labour programmes were ineffective and the lack of juvenile justice including the issue of corporal punishment was rampant.
They said Pakistan’s commitment to child rights had so far been only on paper. They said Pakistan was the signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and therefore there was a need for advocating the implementation of those laws through proper mechanisms and for modifying and changing current policies on rights of children. Some of the policies that were identified included anti-terrorism act, the juvenile justice system ordinance, marriage laws, populations policy, national policy and plan of action, labour policy, national education policy and national plan of action for education for all, draft national health policy, national drug policy, national health policy and national employment policy.
The participants of the meeting also presented recommendations on the issues of health, education and livelihood crisis as well as effective communication and media.
