In many regressive societies, the term ‘child bride’ calls to mind the unsavoury practice of marrying a child, even a preteen, to someone much, much older. This is true for South Asian countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, carrying the highest burden of child marriage in the world. Recent Unicef estimates reveal a harrowing number of 290 million child brides in the region, which represents 45% of all child marriages globally. Marriage is supposed to
Child Rights in Focus
In 2022, Pakistan was hit by a devastating flood that broke a century-old record, resulting in a humanitarian emergency that has affected the lives of over 33 million people, including 16 million children. To assess the impact of the floods on the nutritional practices and needs of infants, young children, and pregnant women, UNICEF and the MoNHSR&C commissioned IPSOS to conduct a rapid care and feeding assessment in the 15 most affected districts across
ACCORDING to media reports, initial figures generated by the ongoing census put the country’s population at 235 million, a whopping increase of 27 million or 12.98 per cent since 2017. And there is already a hue and cry over the official data being supposedly well below the actual numbers. By the time the final count is announced, we may have an astounding shock to deal with. Being a practising doctor and someone who has
According to UNICEF, child marriages are on the decline, but not so much that they could be abolished for another 300 years, while a perfect storm of crises could still reverse the trend. “We have definitely made progress in abolishing the practise of child marriage, especially in the last 10 years. Unfortunately, this progress has not been sufficient,” Claudia Cappa, lead author of the Unicef report released recently, told AFP. According to Unicef estimates,
The recent murder of Dr Ajmal Sawand, an Assistant Professor at Sukkur IBA, has sparked protests against feudalism and tribal chiefs in Northern Sindh. However, the question remains: where do these tribal chiefs derive their power from, and why does this ancient system persist in the region? One of my previous studies may provide some clues to this phenomenon. In 2017, I analyzed the results of the Standardized Achievement Test administered by Sindh government
On April 19, 2010, the Constitution Act also known as the Eighteenth Amendment, received the assent of then President Asif Ali Zardari and was promulgated the following day. One of the monumental changes introduced by the 18th amendment was Article 25-A, that propagated a child’s “right to education.” It reads, “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may
On 28 April 2023, Chief Minister Sindh, Murad Ali Shah inaugurated the first public sector specialised 200-bed children’s hospital in Karachi offering paediatric services especially to newborns, infants and premature babies. The Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology (SICHN) in Korangi is equipped with 21 ventilators along with modern facilities, including a 52-bed intensive care unit dedicated to premature babies, a 28-bed ICU, a 53-bed general unit, a state-of-the-art laboratory and health information
“YES, your child is eligible for the measles vaccination. Your information is correct, the vaccine is free, and provided by the government’s immunisation programme. Is there anything else you’d like to know? Take care of yourself. Allah Hafiz.” This was a telephone operator responding to questions on routine immunisation. In the second booth, another operator was telling a mother from district Khairpur in Sindh that the vaccination team would not visit her at home,
A public service message by Cities for Children on the International Day to End Corporal Punishment 2023.
The filmmaker behind Yasir Hussain and Ayesha Omar’s film on Javed Iqbal, Pakistan’s most infamous murderer, recently changed the film’s name to Kurki and resubmitted it to the censor board for approval. The director, Abu Aleeha, made the necessary changes to the film and announced that it has been cleared by the censor board for release on May 19th. The director explained that the new name was based on Javed Iqbal’s nickname, derived from
UNICEF released it flagship report “The State of World’s Children 2023” on a theme “For Every Child, Vaccination”. According to UNICEF, world is facing a red alert for children’s health: During the COVID -19 pandemic, vaccination coverage dropped dramatically, leaving millions of children unprotected against some of the most serious childhood diseases. In addition, many millions of children from some of the world’s most marginalised communities have not received life-saving vaccinations for a long
Daily Dawn in its editorial on April 19, 2023 highlighted the issue of malnourished children and urged the state to address the nutritional needs of vulnerable children in flood-affected areas. “Although the waters of 2022’s devastating floods have receded, the long-term impacts of the climate event continue to haunt the victims, particularly children. According to the UN, the number of malnourished children in the flood-affected areas has increased greatly, even though malnourishment was already