Our children, our responsibility.

Byline: Khalil Ahmed Dogar

NAMING a year on a historic occurrence is a custom practiced by many cultures across the world. If we're to apply this to 2023 in Pakistan, then the year can easily be dubbed the'Year of Elections'. Every single political party in the country has held power-shows, made public promises and shared its 'vision' for how it wants to lead the country towards change. Every party has claimed to have the backing of millions of men and women, young and old. The truth behind the claimed figures is anyone's guess but the on-ground situation shows that Pakistani political parties have ignored their biggest voters i.e. population under the age of 18.This oversight can't be called an error for children don't have the right to vote in Pakistan or anywhere for that matter.

However, Pakistan, at present, has the highest percentage of children ever recorded in its history. A country where under-18 population is almost 46 percent of the total, one ought to think that the core focus of the politician will be to win the hearts of these children to get future votes and to appease their parents to get current votes. However, no matter who has remained in charge, Pakistan has remained behind in almost all child rights indicators whether health, education, child marriages, protection from violence, child labour etc.

All children are 'entitled' to their rights to survival, protection and development. A scheme or sanitation service cannot pay dividends if it is too expensive, unsafe, remotely located, non-gender-segregated or deemed culturally inappropriate. If any doubt is cast in the minds of recipients, the particular service is bound to fail. Significance of non-discrimination is often understated in public and private child rights programs. The terms 'equality' and 'inclusion' sound a cliche but unfortunately Pakistani children remain oblivious to them. Our children suffer from intentional and unintentional discriminatory practices in education, health, labour and justice sectors. If Pakistan is to prosper, then those at the helm of power must work to ensure that there is no discrimination on the basis of religion, gender, locality, financial status, caste and physical or mental abilities. Child rights are for every child period.

Experts have presented 'Charter of Economy' and 'Charter of Democracy' as solutions to bring Pakistan out...