The Ombudsman Punjab’s Children Complaint Office, established to receive and resolve complaints of children against maladministration by any government functionary, received only 701 complaints since September 2009, revealing a complete lack of coordination between provincial functionaries and Non Government Organizations (NGOs).
The main reason cited behind the lack of coordination are lack of interests in different departments regarding the protection of children’s rights, ignorance of laws pertaining to children’s rights, absence of public relation officers in different departments especially in Social Welfare Department, lack of a joint strategy and allocation of funds and minimum practical involvement of NGOs. However, the main reason for malfunctioning of the CCO is that it is subsidiary office of the overloaded Punjab Ombudsman and cannot function independently. Pakistan Today learnt that United Nations International Children Educational Fund (UNICEF) is a staple fund provider to Children Complaint Office and about Rs 6.2 million is being given in form of salaries to CCO employees while only a dozen Non Government Organizations (NGOs) are playing an active role in collaboration of CCO and Social Welfare Department for the awareness as well as protection of children’s rights while the rest NGOs have either a nominal or dormant role in this regard.
The CCO was established in September 2009 to provide a dedicated forum for receiving and resolving complaints of children up to 18 years of age against maladministration by any provincial agency or functionary. According to data available with Pakistan Today, 701 cases were registered with the CCO from September 2009 and of these, 311 were received via complaint boxes. The CCO disposed 302 complaints while 399 are still under investigation. The education sector is one of most vulnerable area for children as 95 complaints, the largest complaint numbers received against any provincial agency, were registered in CCO and about 22 were registered within three months during 2009 while 73 were registered during 2010.
After education sector, Police department was the second department against which 31 complaints were registered. The Ombudsman Punjab took 20 suo moto notice against different departments while 23 were declared non maintainable. About 12 complaints were registered against Health Department, 14 against Bait-ul-Maal, 11 against City District Government, 9 against Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), 5 against Special Education, 3 against Labour, 1 against Environment Department, 2 against Zakat & Ishar, 1 against NADRA, 1 sports, 1 against TEVTA, 1 Cooperative Department and 3 against Water and Sanitary Authority (WASA).
Talking to Pakistan Today, Punjab Ombudsman Khalid Mehmood said the CCO was going to launch its first website within this week to provide easy access to children about their rights and in this regard complaints boxes would also be placed in public-private schools of all districts of the province till the end of 2012. He said 701 complaints were registered in CCO against 23 different provincial departments and a child-friendly investigation procedure had been adopted to redress the problems of the aggrieved children by giving them the chance to express their feelings without any fear or hesitation. He said the majority of complaints received were made by parents, adding that the teachers, social workers and community members had also contacted the CCO. He said eight departments were highlighted by CCO as most sensitive areas where maximum rights of the children could be usurped. He said these departments were Education, Police, Health, Child Protection Welfare Bureau (CPWB), Social Welfare, Special Education, Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), Board of Revenue and Labour.
He said the CCO had recommended the formulation of a Steering Committee of Parliament to involve the policy makers for the protection of children. He said a technical working group had been setup with the coordination of Social Welfare Department to provide technical guidance on child rights protection activities so that an effective coordination should be ensured among the civil society, NGOs and government departments. He said children who experienced maltreatment or abuse could suffer from anxiety, depression, intense fear, insecurity and even suicidal tendency and the CCO had hired a psychologist to treat them.
“CCO received more than two dozen complaints where psycho-social support was needed,” he said, adding that research and analysis was also being conducted in sensitive cases to manage them. Talking about awareness programmes, he said the CCO had carried out more than 200 orientation sessions in various cities including Lahore, Gujranwala, Wazirabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Sargodha, Multan and Shakargarh to create awareness among children, their parents and community associations. He said the Ombudsman had the authority to take suo moto notice of any issue involving any violation of the basic rights of children. He said there was still a dire need to engage the representatives of different sectors like transport, factories and hotels where small children were hired for manual work so that any violation should be redressed on exigent basis even if it is not reported.
