Among orphans, female orphans are most vulnerable to social monstrosities. However, Punjab government, which touts itself as champions of protecting their rights, has merely two orphanages for millions of female orphans. This underscores the fact that government is not walking its talk, so to speak. Even the orphanages reserved for females, border on living hell due to escalating incidents of sexual, emotional and physical assaults, which still lie unreported. The facts divulge that female orphans, whether staying in orphanages or outside, are left high and dry by government, social welfare department and even Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).
According to Punjab Social Welfare Department (SWD), currently there are two female Model Children Homes located in Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan, which have a residing capacity of merely 100 inhabitants. The government’s negligence with regards to female orphans is revealed by the fact that the Punjab government has never established a single female Model Children Home in the capital metropolis and it does not have a future plan for its establishment in the near future either. Pakistan Today learnt that these female orphanages are below the standard guidelines set across the globe by the UNICEF. These female orphanages lack common household activities and basic necessities when juxtaposed with other homes. The orphanages are marred with poor nutrition, absence of sufficient female staff, untrained and unqualified staff, lack of central coordination with the SWD Directorate, women and young girls crammed in a single room, lack of psychological therapy, absence of character building measures during their upbringing and no recreation facilities. The sources privy to Social Welfare Department Punjab told Pakistan Today that another bleak aspect of this picture is that these female Model Children Homes are overpopulated. The department was directed by the government to establish orphanages with the maximum residing capacity of 50 but more often than not there are more than 80 female dwellers packed inside these buildings.
The sources further said that there was no independent monitoring mechanism to check abuses, allegedly being carried out against the female orphans as only Child Protection Bureau was assigned the duty to monitor these model children homes.
The sources further said if any report about child abuse came to the notice of the concerned authorities, orders were cabled to hush up the matter immediately.
Confirming the report, a lecturer of Punjab University Social Welfare Department Muhammad Arshad told this scribe that whenever they interviewed these orphans for their research work, either male or female, they found that these orphans were being abused physically, emotionally and sexually a lot of times. He said the families or acquaintances were not taking risk of leaving orphans at the mercy of the government-run orphanages as they preferred to send them to religious seminaries or handed them over to the NGOs.
He said female orphanages run by NGOs were better than the government-run orphanages and in this regard SOS Children Villages International’s work was remarkable, which has provided them with better accommodating facilities. When Social Welfare Department Director General Malik Muhammad Aslam was contacted for comments in his directorate office, he said he was not aware of the exact number of Model Children Homes across the province but he said he would have been in a better position to tell about them after checking the figures. He said the Chief Minister Punjab had allocated a reasonable amount to establish more Model Children Homes to accommodate more orphans in the province and added that there were no reported incidents of children abuses in orphanages.
Punjab Social Welfare Department Assistant Director (Child Welfare) Afzal Bashir Mirza, said after devolution, all district officers of social welfare departments came under the supervision of District Coordination Officers (DCOs) and no report was available on the exact number of female Model Children Homes or about their dwellers. He said he was not authorised to comment on any alleged abuses. He further told that female Model Children Homes were being established in Gujranwala, Sialkot and Narowal. Social Welfare Department District Officer Rana Shahid, told this scribe that in Bahawalpur a male and female Model Children Homes were being run by his department and they were providing security to orphans and pick and drop service was also being provided to female orphans during their school time.
He said besides education, vocational training and medicines, two pairs of new clothes a year were also being provided to female orphans. The Punjab government has allocated Rs35 million for the establishment of new orphanages in DG Khan, Sialkot, Narowal, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Sargodha and two more female orphanages would be established in Gujranwala and Sialkot districts.
