CHILDREN OF GYPSIES, NOMADS AND SHEPHERDS ALSO HAVE RIGHT TO GET EDUCATION

Homelessness is the condition of people without homes, and people without homes are called as homeless people. This is the simple definition of homelessness, but according to the United Nations, people who are living in slum dwellings are also considered as homeless people.According to the report of United Nations,  more than 20 million people are homeless in Pakistan. This can be attributed to the people who have no access to housing or living in the slum dwellings. Similarly, people who are living in the areas effected by natural disasters (without proper housing) are also homeless people.

Inflation is the first major cause of homelessness in Pakistan. In the last decade, prices of homes have increased by 10 times, but wages have not increased with the same ratio. This has resulted in high level of poverty in Pakistan and homelessness is on the rise.Homeless people are homeless because they are lazy and ignorant. However, one million population became homeless every year due to others reasons. Homeless people find shelter in public housing. Due to the lack of money people cannot afford the rent and stay on the road without any shelter in the winter or summer season. While most of the homeless people experience such as lack of affordable housing and long waiting for associated housing mean that many women and their children are focused to choice between abuse at home and life on the streets.  Poverty and homeless both are linked closed.

"The streets are full of dangers for the children who live there," said Azad Foundation psychologist Waseen Fatima. "The use of drugs is common, and most of the children suffer from sexual abuse or harassment."

"Bakarwal Mobile Schools (BMS) 2007

“The Bakarwal people have lived a nomadic life for generations and find it to be an intrinsic aspect of their culture and identity.  Due to rapid population growth, inflation, and increased restrictions to public grazing areas, they are finding this traditional way of life is under threat.  At the same time, due to the structure and content of the current education system, Bakarwal nomads remain largely illiterate and at an economic disadvantage due to a lack of relevant educational opportunities” says Brandon Baughn, Director BMS"

It is hard to envision that there are still groups of people in Pakistan who live nomadic lives/ nomads, during their twice-yearly migrations. An alternate bivouacking under the stars every single night.

“According to statistics, there are over seven million gypsies living in Pakistan. But despite their number, gypsies have no identity due to their lack of documentation.There is no concept of birth registration within the community, which makes it difficult for them to get Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC).”(Dawn news 11 October 2015)

Universal Children’s Day is observed every year on November 20. In Pakistan, the day is usually marked with a few functions at the federal and provincial capitals and messages from the Prime Minister or President of Pakistan with no serious follow up or impact on the state of child rights in the country. In today’s piece I’ll particularly focus on children at risk in Pakistan.

Children as part of street family are children from the homeless families, gypsies and nomads who as a family and in some cases as a community live on the street. Street family phenomenon is a major problem in Pakistan’s urban context. In Islamabad, one can find children belonging to street families begging and selling things on all the major traffic signals of the city. Similarly, in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar and many other cities one can find children from the street families begging, selling or cleaning wind screens of the cars at the traffic signals.

These individuals seldom consume meat, consuming mostly milk, yogurt, cheese and pabulum, wild plants which they accumulate from their surroundings, while recognizing that they should never reap excessively from one spot.

Millions of Pakistanis have abnegated their right to education due to poverty, vulnerability, lack of services, spatial isolation and conflicts. Nomads, in particular, are subject to marginalization that renders their children’s formal education difficult.

Education frameworks and curricula don’t regard such groups of people’s multifarious cultures. There are barely any educators who talk their dialects and their schools frequently need essential materials. Instructive materials that give exact and reasonable information on nomadic groups and their lifestyles are especially uncommon.

The contrast in access to education between nomadic and non-nomadic students is stark. The way forward requires active involvement of community and all stakeholders and initiative keeping in view the requirements of nomadic students.

This is particularly problematic for those forced out of nomadic shepherding and, as a result, having to move to marginal land on the outskirts of cities.  The only options for Bakarwal nomads to educate their children is to either abandon their traditional way of life and settle in the outskirts of town, or send their children away to Madrassas.  Such practices may lead to a loss of their ethnic and linguistic identities and throw them into a cycle of poverty. By adapting education to the needs of Bakarwal nomads, such as training literate men and women from the Bakarwal community to work as literacy instructors and providing a mother-tongue  curriculum “Every Shepherd a Scholar, Every Scholar a Shepherd.” This way nomadic communities are able to maintain their culture and simultaneously achieve progress through education.

“Article: 25A Right to Education

1[25A.   Right to education.—The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.]”

The Government of Pakistan should provide education to those deserving families

Children mental health in Pakistan nowadays

The terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar has left an indelible mark on the psyche of the Pakistani nation. One cannot even begin to comprehend what the children must have gone through in those harrowing moments when the terrorists burst into the school premises and opened fire, mercilessly killing more than 140 of them.

Neither can one comprehend the anguish and turmoil their families must be going through now. Needless to say, terrorism and violent acts have become a way of life in Pakistan today and no one is suffering from this more than the children of this country.

War or any act of terror is the most challenging and difficult time for children, as they are psychologically immature. This psychological immaturity makes them more vulnerable to the effects of distressing and inescapable stresses. Children are reliant on care, empathy and support provided by their adults. When there is a suicide blast or war, their attachment with their loved ones is disturbed due to loss of parents, emotional unavailability of depressed parents and parents in extreme worrisome conditions.

The care of the child is then shifted to his/her relatives, Edhi centers and orphanage homes. War and blasts also affect the physical and emotional resources that are provided by their parents. On the other hand, children who are the victims of war or suicide bombings, lose the opportunity of acquiring education and are forced to move in camps where they reside for years in miserable conditions,waiting to recommence a normal life.

The United Nations Children's Fund is calling attention to the affect that three years of conflict has had on Syria's young people, saying the crisis is the "most damaging conflict for children in the region's recent history."

According to a new UNICEF report released, 5.5 million Syrian children now need assistance because of the war -- a number that has more than doubled in the past year. Among the hardest hit, it says are one million children living under siege and in hard to reach areas in Syria.

The report says of January, violence has killed more than 10,000 children in Syria, who are often are not accidental victims of war, but rather deliberately targeted. Witnesses say children and infants have been killed by snipers, or become victims of summary executions or torture. Schools have been bombed.

The 2014 Israel-Gaza war took a heavy toll on Gaza’s children: more than 500 were killed, 3,374 were injured – nearly a third of whom suffer permanent disability – and more than 1,500 were orphaned. Hundreds of thousands were left in trauma.

The war devastated infrastructure that was already teetering on the brink of collapse. The education and health sectors were particularly hard hit. During the 51-day conflict, 258 schools and kindergartens were damaged, including 26 schools that are beyond repair. Seven health facilities were destroyed and 67 hospitals and clinics were damaged.

The history of humans is a history of intergroup conflict, whether it be between tribes, city–states, kingdoms, or nations. It is estimated that 2 million children have been killed due to war-related injuries, 4 million have been disabled, 1 million orphaned, and 12 million dislocated from their homes (UNICEF, 1996). The Durant’s (1968) after writing The History of Civilization concluded that “war is one of the constants in history” and that “in the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war.” Population explosions, the breaking up of the colonial empires, the rise of nationalism, tribalism, and religious fundamentalism have spurred people to define boundaries more exclusively with subsequent conflicts with neighbors. As low intensity regional conflicts replaced the global conflicts between nationalized armies of the world, the victims of war have gradually encompassed a greater proportion of the civilian population.

He became irritable, aggressive and said he wanted to kill someone. He couldn’t sleep, had flashbacks and stopped going to school”. The quality of life of children is impacted by the war and terrorism. Many children lose their limbs and are rendered disabled. So the whole life of these children will be lived under the shadow of war injury and they are less likely to be employed and to marry. Hence, such traumatic events bring negative changes in a child’s life.

War and terrorism not only disturbs physical and social life of children but also has an immense effect on the psychology of children.

Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) for children and parents is an evidence based treatment approach for traumatized children. Evaluation of TF-CBT includes several randomized controlled trials, effectiveness studies and ongoing studies for children experiencing sexual abuse, domestic violence, traumatic grief, terrorism, disasters and multiple traumas. The model of TF-CBT described here is a flexible, components-based model that provides children and parents with stress management skills prior to encouraging direct discussion and processing of children’s traumatic experiences.

Pakistan has been going through a perpetual state of low- to medium-intensity war for the last couple of decades. And this state of affairs is unlikely to end anytime soon. Many children and young people have been affected personally by terrorism, either by being at the scene of an attack, by knowing someone injured or killed by militants or watching graphic scenes on their television screens.

Many children suffer acute anxiety when in public places. Others may have symptoms such as difficulty in sleeping, poor concentration, irritability, aggression, loss of appetite etc. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric condition that can be triggered after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, from military combat to terrorism, natural disasters and personal assaults.

Government of Pakistan should protect the citizen of Pakistan because it is always the responsibility of the state to protect people’s life.

Child labour and Sexual harassment in Pakistan

Children are the assets of our society and how we bring them up determines the future of our country. It is the shared responsibility of the entire society to raise healthy children and in this respect, I believe we as a nation are failing dismally. Our children today face multiple problems such as child labour, physical, sexual and verbal abuse. Perhaps the most serious of these issues is sexual abuse.It is an impermissible crime which does not receive its due share of attention from social or legal circles in Pakistan. Cultural and religious sensitivities create a hushed aura about this topic, and this article aims to break that and to raise voices against it.Our silence and general inaction amplifies the psychological, physical and social consequences that sexual abuse has for victims. Every time I watch or read a news report on child sexual abuse, my mind grappled with why and how anybody could commit such a heinous act. We need to examine the issue of sexual abuse, how to prevent it and how to help heal those who have suffered it.

1.Child labour in Pakistan

Child labor in Pakistan is the employment of children for work in Pakistan, which causes mental, physical, moral and social harm to children.Pakistan is regularly near the top of the list of the countries where child labor is common. You need to take drastic measures to end the problem. On 14 July, Punjab government enacted an ordinance prohibiting employment of children and defined strict rules for the use of teenagers between 15 to 18 years. The implementation of the Restriction of the Use of Children Ordinance 2016 is a daunting task and so on Friday, the government of Punjab plans to provide subsidies for workers children to work in factories and workshops to be registered with them in schools announced. Child workers will be offered enrollment in school or skills training to the Punjab Vocational Training Council (VBAC), which has already trained 69,000 children from 14 to 18 years to develop.

In an effort to eliminate the children in brick kilns, the provincial government is Rs1000 per child available; While the three sectors identified – auto repair shops, fuel pumps, hotels and restaurants – the amount expected to double. Is a good step to give incentives for parents and employers to take children to school. Selected employers of young workers because they can pay them less for the same work and can be exploited more easily. Meanwhile, many children are forced to enter the labor market early because of poverty. Employers and minors, therefore, gaps because the choice is going to school who cannot or medical facilities. For many children, this is not the choice of education and work, between sitting useless in poor schools or some work experience or cash. In addition, a successful market for labor and child trafficking in Pakistan and more likely than adults to become involved in your network.

Technical education is employment opportunities might be available, but much of the country’s industry, especially SMEs, under controlled conditions and for work comply with labor laws. Machines and information. Laws cannot change much, at least some of the side of the children. The solution is quite simple, which can produce bright students so that the opportunity cost of time spent in class small compared to the economic results after the education establishment. However, this is something that does not make for good political mandates, or for shocking headlines in the media. This question is left on the edge, like children picking up trash on the streets, exposed to malnutrition, abuse and trafficking.

2.Children Harassment and sexual abusing in Pakistan

At least 11 children became victims of sexual abuse everyday while almost 100 were murdered after sexual assault in 2016, a 10 per cent increase in such cases compared to the previous year.Out of the sexual abuse victims, 41 per cent were boys. As many as 2,410 girls and 1,729 boys were sexually abused last year. (A report launched in 2017)

The report, ‘Cruel numbers 2016’ revealed that 4,139 children were sexually abused last year out of which 76 per cent cases were reported from rural areas whereas 24 per cent were reported from urban areas.Besides sexual violence and abuse, children are being subjected to physical torture and even murdered in their own homes.

The report has been compiled after monitoring and gathering data from 86 national, regional and local newspapers.

Punjab reported the highest number of cases (2,676) in 2016 which were followed by 987 cases reported from Sindh, 166 from Balochistan, 156 from Islamabad, 141 from Khyber-Pakhtunkwa, nine from Azad Jammu and Kashmir and four cases from Gilgit-Baltistan.

Of the total around 78 per cent of cases were registered with the police, 32 per cent were unregistered, whereas police refused to register an FIR for 142 cases.

The study reveals that among major crime categories, 1,445 cases of abduction were reported, followed by 502 rape cases, 453 cases of sodomy, 217 gang rape cases, 268 gang sodomy and 362 cases of attempt of child sexual abuse.

A 19 per cent increase has been reported in abduction cases which have increased from 1,386 cases in 2015 to 1,654 cases in 2016 bringing the number of abducted children to five per day.

The highest percentage of vulnerable age group among both boys and girls was reported between the ages of 11 and 15 years and the second vulnerable group between the ages of 6 and 10 years.

Around 97 per cent of the children were abused once and in three per cent of the cases children were abused for more than a day, says the report.

A majority of the abusers were found to be acquaintances of the victims (1,765), 798 were strangers.

The report also highlights the 176 cases of child marriage reported in 2016.Child sexual abuse is a global issue and challenging for every country.

A very special case regarding children sexual harassment 
"The Kasur child sexual abuse scandal is a series of child sexual abuses that occurred in Hussain Khanwala village in Kasur District, Punjab, Pakistan from 2006 to 2014, culminating in a major political scandal in 2015. After the discovery of hundreds of video clips showing children performing forced sex acts, various Pakistani media organizations estimated that 280 to 300 children, most of them male, were victims of sexual abuse. The scandal involved an organized crime ring that sold child pornography to porn sites, and blackmailed and extorted relatives of the victims.  

The scandal caused nationwide outrage, among allegations that the Punjab police and Malik Ahmed Saeed, Kasur's Member of the Provincial Assembly from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), were involved in an attempted cover-up of the abuse.

It is cited by both news agencies and government departments as the largest child abuse scandal in Pakistan's history. Besides large-scale public condemnation, 50 Pakistani clergy and religious scholars issued a fatwa (religious decree) for capital punishment of the culprits, and demanded that the government console the victims and their parents."