perspective-child rights - Page 2

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…

The Age Of Consent And The Borders Of Belief

ICT Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 marks a pivotal step toward a safer, progressive Pakistan KARACHI. Child rights organisations and advocates, along with concerned citizens, have warmly welcomed the passage of recent legislation on child marriages, describing it as a landmark step toward protecting the rights and well-being of children.…

The Case for Teaching Punjabi in Schools

THE chief minister of Punjab, Ms Maryam Nawaz, has said that Punjabi…

Ghost Schools

KARACHI: Apropos the letter “Ghost Teachers” published on September 19, 2024, the…

Children at risk

Pakistan has once again found itself in the middle of a rapidly expanding public health challenge: childhood obesity. The latest findings from the World Obesity Atlas 2026 should ideally serve as a wakeup call for our health authorities. Since 2010, the prevalence of obesity among Pakistani children and adolescents has…

Education for Prosperity

Pakistan possesses a demographic profile that could either become its greatest asset or its most destabilising liability. Unfortunately, we are headed in the wrong direction. To understand the scale of the challenge, it is important to recognise the extent of Pakistan’s educational underinvestment. Unesco has advised a minimum of 4-6…

Starved Childhoods

EVERY day, in homes across Pakistan, millions of children are quietly being left behind. Not by flood or famine, earthquake or epidemic, but by the slow, invisible erosion of chronic undernutrition. The crisis unfolding concerns the 40 percent of Pakistani children under five who are stunted, the nearly 10m children…

Polio, again

ANOTHER child has fallen victim to polio, this time in Sindh. The National Institute of Health this week confirmed that a four-year-old from Bello in Sujawal, Sindh, is infected with the wild poliovirus, making this the first case in 2026. The development brings back into the limelight Pakistan’s long fight…

Education Illusion

A recent federal government report on public financing in education contains embarrassing data on the low bar that we have set for the word ‘educated’, as some 77% of 10-year-olds surveyed across the country could not read or understand a simple text. Put another way, it means at least half…

Children in Conflict with the Law: A Theoretical Perspective

What do we mean when we call someone a “juvenile delinquent”? Is it merely a legal label, or does it reflect deeper social anxieties about youth, morality, and order? In legal terms, a juvenile is a person under the age of eighteen. Juvenile delinquency refers to criminal or deviant acts…

The Cause and Effect of Madrassah Reform

Every few years in Pakistan, madrassahs return to the headlines as if they are a new discovery. A tragedy occurs. A security report is published. A political speech is delivered. And once again, the debate collapses into accusation and denial. There are few words in Pakistan’s public life that ignite…

Failing Girls on Education

Girls’ education statistics have shown remarkable improvements over the past few years, but, unfortunately, given the extremely weak starting point, they are still well off the mark for a nation that hopes to create a socioeconomic miracle. The Federal Ministry of Education and Technical Training’s Girls’ Education Statistics and Trends…

The Road to School is Harder for Some

PESHWAR: Every day, 15-year-old Mashal Khan, a sixth-grade student, walks three kilometres from his home to his government high school in Jalala. The journey takes him longer than other children and is especially arduous because he was born with disability in both feet. “It is very difficult for me to…

Childhood Cancer

Not all parents have an equal chance of success at saving their child from a fatal illness. Unfortunately, while fate determines lifespan, so does geography. According to experts, childhood cancer survival rates exceed 80 per cent in wealthy countries but in low- and middle-income countries, such as Pakistan, they drop…