ISLAMABAD: Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC) on Tuesday decided to raise awareness among the masses about child abuse by starting seminars, teachers training and parental guidance on the matter.
The decision was made in the WPC meeting which held in the wake of increasing number of child abuse incidents.
While chairing the meeting, WPC secretary Shaista Pervaiz Malik said that the parents are mainly responsible for the protection of their children. She said that there was a need to have further legislation, police reforms and other initiatives in this regard.
Shaista asked the members of the meeting to give their suggestions for the betterment of the society. She said that WPC would consult the education ministry and religious ministry to have a joint strategy on the issue.
Members of the meeting said that there should be awareness campaigns to inform the children as well as parents of such social evils, and training sessions for teachers and students in both schools and colleges should also be held.
The members of the meeting agreed that exemplary punishments should be awarded to the culprits involved in child abuse cases.
They stressed upon the data collection on crime rate besides the data of culprits and the trend of punishment. They also said that there should be reforms should be carried out to put an end to such incidents, and awareness among the policemen and officials was also essential.
Instead of taking a departmental action against the low-ranking police officers following any such incident, an action should be taken against those on higher-rank, they added.
They said that these cases should be heard in the anti-terrorists courts, and religious scholars should also be taken on board on the issue, adding that NGOs should go from door to door in a bid to raise awareness on such serious.
