Perspective

Insights From the 2023 Census Report

The 2023 Census conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics released its complete report in July 2024 indicates that the total population of Pakistan is 240 million out of which the population of children under 18 is 112 Million (47% of the total population). Children Population (under 18) Population under 18 Total Male Female Transgender Pakistan 112,472,700 58,099,978 54,370,121 2,601…

Permitted age for employment of children as domestic workers

Do you know what the minimum age is for children in the different provinces of Pakistan to be employed as domestic workers? Child labour is a provincial subject in Pakistan after the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010. The 18th Constitutional Amendment devolved the issue of labour and employment to the…

Juvenile Offenders in Punjab

The total number of convicted and undertrial juveniles imprisoned in various borstal…

Transport For Schooling

A JUDGE at the Lahore High Court recently ordered that schools should arrange for…

What a Child Drinks

AT the recent Act for Nutrition Conference in Islamabad, organised by DawnMedia, where I joined a panel examining the link between poor water, sanitation and child stunting, much of the discussion was rightly about food: what children eat, how mothers are supported, and why so many families still struggle to…

Minor’s Brutal killing

The horrific incident in Multan – where a 15-year-old boy was chased and crushed to death by a car – has once again highlighted the plight of children in Pakistan. It also raises questions about the state of orphanages, the depth to which humanity has stooped, and the shameful conduct…

Classrooms of Neglect

A school should be the last place where parents fear for their children’s lives. Yet the deaths of 31 students and a teacher in Peshawar’s Al-Khair School roof collapse is an incident that should spring authorities into action. In a country where educational institutions are expected to shape the future,…

Deeper Poverty

PAKISTAN’S poverty crisis is far deeper than official indicators suggest. While the government celebrates economic stabilisation, almost four in every 10 Pakistanis suffer from deprivation in health, education, and living standards. The latest UNDP figures put multidimensional poverty at 38.3pc of the population against 19.3pc for South Asia. We are…

Poverty’s Long Shadow

PAKISTAN’S contribution to rising poverty across the Middle East, North Africa and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region is troubling. According to the World Bank, the country accounts for nearly half of the region’s people living in extreme poverty. Ours is a story of repeated hardship. Millions of Pakistanis have endured the pandemic,…

Before She Becomes a Bride, Let Her Be a Girl

On the International Day of the Girl, coming up on October 11 (tomorrow), we are reminded of a simple but often overlooked truth: girls’ rights cannot be separated from their right to childhood. This year’s theme, “End Child Marriage. Invest in Girls’ Rights”, asks us to look beyond the progress…

Vanished Girls

THE scourge of female disappearances in Pakistan should be a matter of shame. Institutional reforms and criminalising chauvinistic traditions remain long overdue measures. The Lahore High Court, during the hearing of a case of disappearance, was informed by Punjab’s police chief that over 500 cases of girls reported missing were…

Unsafe Online

The internet has become an ordinary part of childhood, but the protections surrounding young users remain anything but ordinary. A new Kaspersky analysis offers a revealing picture of where Pakistani children are spending their time online. During the first eight months of 2026, YouTube accounted for 31.2% of their mobile…

Sindh’s Rabies Crisis

World Rabies Day passed earlier this week, and Sindh’s official figures tell the story of a province being chewed up by a completely preventable disease. At least 35 people have died of rabies in the first nine months of 2026, while dog-bite cases across Sindh have surged past 200,000, including…

School Van Safety

The sight of a school van reduced to a burnt-out shell in Murree should be enough to dispel any illusion that Pakistan’s existing approach to school transport is working. Children travelling to a school on Tuesday suffered burns after their van left the road and caught fire. Preliminary reports indicate…

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