Save the Children: CHILD RIGHTS SITUATION ANALYSIS REPORT

CHILD RIGHTS SITUATION ANALYSIS REPORT M U Z A F FA R G A R H A N D S A N G H A R

Save the Children envisions a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

Our mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

CHILD RIGHTS SITUATION ANALYSIS REPORT M U Z A F FA R G A R H A N D S A N G H A R

LIST OF FIGURES

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ACRONYMS

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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INTRODUCTION- COUNTRY CONTEXT

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SCOPE AND PURPOSE

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METHODOLOGY

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DISTRICT PROFILE - MUZAFFARGARH

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DISTRICT PROFILE - SANGHAR

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LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE CONTEXT

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RIGHT TO A GOOD AND HEALTHY START IN LIFE

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RIGHT TO QUALITY EDUCATION

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RIGHT TO WATER AND IMPROVED SANITATION

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RIGHT TO SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

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RIGHT TO PROTECTION FROM ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE

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RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION

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CAUSAL ANALYSIS

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POWER RELATIONS AND RISK

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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ANNEXURE

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FIGURES FIG 01 FIG 02 FIG 03 FIG 04 FIG 05 FIG 06 FIG 07 FIG 08 FIG 09 FIG 10 FIG 11 FIG 12 FIG 13 FIG 14

FIG 15 FIG 16 FIG 17

Map of Punjab province Map of Sindh Province Status Of Health Providers Immunization Coverage % Record and Recall Types of Schools Grading of Schools Status of Basic Facilities Economic Indicators Income Patterns Percentage of Child Labour Drug Addicts Sexual Abuse Affected Children Victims of Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Kidnapping Domestic Violence Child Marriages Duty Bearers and Rights Holders

15 16 18 19 22 22 24 29 30 33 33 34 34 35 36 36 47

ACRONYMS API Annual Parasite Incidence ARI Acute Respiratory Infection BHU Basic Health Unit CBR Crude Birth Rate CDR Crude Death Rate CPP Child Protection Policy CPR Contraceptive Prevalence Rate CRC Convention on Rights of Children DEO District Education Officer DHO District Health Officer DRR Disaster Risk Reduction EDO Executive District Office FGDs Focus Group Discussions GER Gross Enrolment Rate HDI Human Development Index HPI Human Poverty Index IMR Infant Mortality Rate JMP Joint Monitoring Programme LHV Lady Health Visitor LHW Lady Health Worker MDGs Millennium Development Goals MICS Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey MMR Maternal Mortality Rate MNCH Maternal Newborn and Child Health MTDF Medium Term Development Framework MZG Muzaffargarh NCCWD National Commission for Child Welfare and Development NER Net Enrolment Rate NPP National Population Policy PAK Pakistan PDHS Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper PSLM Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement SND Sindh SNG Sanghar SSIs Semi Structured Interviews TBA Traditional Birth Attendant TFR Total Fertility Rate TT Tetanus Toxoid U5MR Under 5 Mortality Rate UNCRC United Nations Convention on Rights of Children

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We extend our special thanks to the CRAN members for their active participation in data collection. We would like to acknowledge our deep appreciation of Sanjh Foundation and Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF) for their helpful facilitation throughout the process of the survey.

We are especially grateful to teams of Sycop and Devcon for assisting and facilitating us throughout the field activities especially Mr Ahmad Sidhu Child Protection Officer Sycop, Mr Ghulam Madni Memon Child Protection Officer of Devcon, Ms Kulsoom Chairperson of Sycop and Mr Nisar Ahmad Nizmani CEO of Devcon. We are most grateful to Areeba

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Shahid Project Manager Child Protection IKEA, Ms Saira Rehman (Coordinator Child Protection) and Mr Musa (Manager Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning) for their insightful suggestions and involvement in the design and execution of the survey.

We are most thankful to Dr Aliya Qadir Khan for her technical assistance with data analysis, Mr Shahzad Anwar, Mr Kashif Hafeez, Mr Bilal Javed and Mr Saleem Danish with their teams for organizing the trainings, supervising data collection and data entry.

Last but not least, to Mr Amir Habib (Programme Director for IKEA), our grateful thanks for his wise counsel and reassurance from the outset to the end.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES Background Pakistan is a signatory to several international treaties related to the protection of basic human rights, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) ratified in 1990. This international commitment obliges the state to respect the established standards and holds the state apparatus accountable to translate these international laws into domestic regulations. Many children in Pakistan are deprived of their basic human rights. The pay off of interventions includes, ensuring long-term economic growth in Pakistan, achieving the social goals of the Millennium Declaration and realizing the rights of all children.

Save the Children was keen to obtain a child rights situation analysis in two districts of Pakistan i.e.

Muzaffargarh and Sanghar, which are two the marginalized districts of Pakistan with low socioeconomic indicators, and vulnerable to floods of 2010 and 2011 respectively. The project was expected to generate necessary evidence for identification of gaps that would be helpful in developing proactive advocacy required at different levels, and strengthen programme management by addressing the gaps for effective service delivery. It was also hoped that such an analysis would provide evidence for provincial and national campaigns and advocacy strategies.

The project was initiated in 2010, and this situation analysis is conducted in July/August 2013 The overall purpose of the Child Rights Situation Analysis (CRSA) was to assess and analyze the gaps in the fulfillment of children’s rights as envisaged in the UNCRC in South Punjab and Central Sindh with specific focus on the districts of Muzaffargarh in Punjab province and Sanghar in Sindh province.

The scope and purpose of the situation analysis was to: • Map violations of children’s rights (including gaps in provision) and examine the immediate and root causes of these violations • Identify duty bearers who are responsible for stopping and preventing child rights violations and provide an analysis of their actions/practices (if any) that proved to be useful, also identify causes/factors that prevented duty bearers from taking actions against child rights violations

• Analyze what internal and external factors may hinder the realization of children’s rights at different levels, i.e., community and government both.

• Analyze current and likely future trends in violations of children’s rights • Analysis of provincial level legislation for the fulfillment of children’s right to education and protection.

• Identify, in broad terms, particular groups and subgroups of children whose rights are denied on the grounds of discrimination and suggest remedial actions to prevent such negative tendencies in futures.

Primary Objectives • To identify and analyze the immediate and underlying causes of violations of rights, disaggregated data of the affected children and trends over the last 3 years.

• To identify and analyze the gaps between policy, planning and implementation with taking into account its effects on the rights of children at the District level as envisaged in the UN CRC. • To build the capacity of the Child Rights Advocacy Network on technical areas of the CRSA. • To present clear, concrete, realistic and practical recommendations this must be in line with the context.

Secondary Objectives • To collect information from primary and secondary sources and analyze it for availability, access and quality of facilities essential for the fulfillment of child rights.

• To analyze the extent to which duty bearers, key actors and stakeholders are able to protect and fulfill children’s rights, and where possible forecast the likely trend of this in the near future.

• To identify the opportunities and constraints for civil society in general and CRAN in particular to make a significant contribution to the fulfillment of children’s rights in both districts in the near future • To identify examples and best practices being initiated by communities with regard to prevention of child rights

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Methodology The study was conducted using a combined qualitative and quantitative approach for gathering information from the stakeholders and local communities along with secondary sources. It utilized the services of CRAN established in both districts for data collection from their respective union councils so that these organizations would realize the situation of their areas themselves and at the same time build their own capacities in collecting such information wherever needed.

Legal and Administrative Context The Draft Child Protection Policy (CPP) is being developed for the last many years. The NCCWD submitted a revised draft in July 2010, which was sent to the inter-provincial coordination committee and then sent back to cabinet division. So far, the CPP has not been approved. The Government of the Punjab passed the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act in 2004 and this was amended in 2007. The Sindh Child Protection Authority Bill, 2011 was passed by the Sindh Assembly on May 16, 2011 and became a law with the provincial governor’s assent on June 9, 2011.

Under Section 10 of the Act, an authority would be set up to coordinate and monitor child protection issues at the provincial and district levels.

Right to a Good and Healthy start in Life Punjab and Sindh have an overall immunization coverage of 86% and 77% respectively whereas Pakistan has 82%. A third of children aged 1223 months in Muzaffargarh have not received any immunization. The national Maternal Mortality Rate is estimated at 276 per 100,000 live births, the Infant Mortality Rate is 78 deaths per 1000 live births and Under-5 Mortality Rate is 94 deaths per 1000 live births. The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2011 for Punjab shows that Muzaffargarh has an IMR of 97 and U5MR of 124, Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2006-07 indicated that Sindh had an IMR of 81 and U5MR of 101. About one-third of health care providers in Sanghar and half in Muzaffargarh are quacks (unqualified practitioners). There was no significant change in the health providers, although the numbers of hakeem specialists recorded less than previously.

100-150 children in Pakistan die every day because of

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diarrheal related illnesses. Half of the rural population is without adequate sanitation and Pakistan is offtrack to meet the projected MDG target of 67%. The commonest source of water was the use of hand pump and motor pump in the districts in Punjab and Sindh. Muzaffargarh rated 75% use of hand-pump and 1% for tap water, while Sanghar reported 58% and 20% respectively. Nearly 44% populations in Muzafargarh have not toilets and defecate in the fields.

The vast majority of births in 2010-11 took place at home (57% in Punjab and 52% in Sindh). In rural areas, some 66% deliveries took place at home in Punjab compared to 73% in Sindh. The trend of delivery at home in Muzaffargarh is 81%, while at Sanghar it is 62%.

Both Muzaffargarh and Sanghar had a pre-natal consultation rate of 55%. Muzaffargarh and Sanghar had higher consultation at private hospital or clinic in 52% and 43% respectively, than government facility (government hospital, Rural Health Centre or Basic Health Unit) in 32% and 31% respectively.

Right to Education In Pakistan, the population of ten years and older that has ever attended schools is 60% and Net Enrollment Rate (NER) is 56%. The recently released district education rankings have shown that Muzaffargarh has a NER for girls in primary school of 48% and for boys of 63%. In Sanghar, the NER for girls in primary school is 54% and for boys is 68%. In Muzaffargarh, a third (36%) of girls and about half (46%) of the boys completed their primary education, while in Sanghar two-fifths (41%) of girls and boys achieved primary school completion.

Literacy remains much higher in urban areas than in rural areas and much higher in men than in women.

Province wise, Punjab leads with 60% and Muzaffargarh at 43%, followed by Sindh with 59% and Sanghar at 51%. In Muzaffargarh, the student to teacher ratio is 76, while in Sanghar it is 33. However, the girl students to female teacher ratio are 66 in Muzaffargarh and 42 in Sanghar.

Government schools remained the commonest type of school found in three-fourths or more cases in both districts. Only one third of students i.e. 33% who completed education in 2011 in both districts were girls. Half of the dropouts in 2012 in Sanghar district and one-third in Muzaffargarh were girls. Two thirds

of the schools in Sanghar district do not have latrines.

More than four fifths of the schools in Sanghar and over half in Muzaffargarh do not have girls latrines.

Right to Adequate Standard of Living Infrastructure About a third of all the houses in Sanghar and Muzaffargarh were of the Kacha type. The proportion of Pakka houses was about the same in both districts (two-fifths each), while in both districts about a fourth were Kacha Pakka houses.

Economic Indicators More than 2/3rd populations in both districts have Households income of PKRs 6000 per month. 1/4th HHs in Sanghar and 1/5th HHs in Muzaffargarh have income of more than PKRs 10,000 per month Right to Protection from All forms of Violence Age for Marriage The child marriages under 14 years in Muzaffargarh for boys are 4.6% and for girls is 8.9% respectively.

While in Sanghar, it is 12.2% for boys and 21.2% for girls under 14 years. Overall nearly half of the children get married before reaching the age of 18 years Missing Children Muzaffargarh had a higher proportion of affected children (12.46%) compared to 6.38% in Sanghar owing to the large number children reported as destitute.The findings from Muzaffargarh may need to be interpreted with caution. The prevalence of missing children was 0.77% in Muzaffargarh and 0.23% in Sanghar.

Child Trafficking & Child Labour About 4.7% children in Muzaffargarh and 1.7% in Sanghar were victims of human trafficking, smuggling and kidnapping. The commonest causes were begging and bonded labour in both districts. Child labour in Muzaffargarh is 18.29%, and in Sanghar it is 13.87%.

Domestic Violence Domestic violence was reported in 15.0% of children in Muzaffargarh and 3.4% in Sanghar. Physical, emotional and economical were the commonest forms of domestic violence in both districts.

Drug Addicts Current findings indicate that the prevalence of drug addicts among children in Muzaffargarh and Sanghar is

4.12% and 1.37% respectively.

Right to Protection and Assistance in Emergencies The Disaster Needs Assessment estimated damages at US$ 9.7 billion for floods of 2010 (UNICEF, 2011).

The 2010 floods affected an estimated 3 million children under five years of age (600,000 new born) and 780,000 pregnant women. Child Protection Early Recovery programs reached 351,970 of the most vulnerable children affected by the 2010 floods through 828 Child Protection Centers as they returned to their communities, with community-based protective services, social mobilization, awareness messages, referrals and follow-up.

Children in Emergencies There is shallow coverage of social protection of children e.g. through the Benazir Income Support Programme initiatives as many local communities are unaware of government mechanisms for child protection at district or tehsil levels.

The local communities including children do not have any understanding about disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management although both districts are vulnerable to natural disasters because of seasonal variations and proximity to rivers.

Right to Participate Article 12 of the CRC emphasizes that States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child. The duty bearers (government officials, elected representatives, etc.) holding high power have less interest for the participation of children and even more existing culture and practices followed by the parents and elders of the families revolves around “Authority” or “Dominance”. In order to break the bearers of social exclusion of such groups, there is need to build the capacities of local communities, school councils, teachers, local elected representative and children of the schools.

Causal Analysis of Child Rights The underlying causes for low compliance to CRC are: • Lack of awareness among the communities and Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

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institutional framework of child protection is not fully cascaded at the community level (union councils) • Poverty is the main cause of child labour, child abuse and poor child protection • Religious and preconceived notions/fears about family planning and immunization result in low coverage • Open defection due to cultural practice create poor sanitation and increased waterborne diseases including diarrhoea • Poor knowledge among primary and secondary duty bearers including parents regarding participation in education and local affairs; and • Vulnerability of the areas due to floods and droughts Power Relations and Risks The micro level risks include diarrhea; under weight births; forced marriages; women domestic violence; low asset holdings and change in cropping patterns.The meso level risks comprise of riverside displacement, under nutrition status; unemployment, weak civil society organizations and hesitance to family planning.

The macro level risk factors are floods, drought spells, high vulnerable zones of climate change; resistance to sexual reproductive health education; low economic growth rate; weak accountability and poor capabilities on the part of duty bearers.

Key Recommendations 1. Engagement with local political leadership is critical to cultivate the benefits of the interventions, especially made under child protection regarding early marriages, improved reporting of the child protection cases, for building the support for

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implementation of child related legislation.

2. Stakeholder’s engagement with Child Protection Cells or focal persons at the district level should be strengthened to identify their capacity needs, and facilitate them in applying a comprehensive framework for child protection.

3. An advocacy campaign with health department focusing on increased immunization coverage and health hygiene would be desirable along with building the capacities of CRAN members in health promotion.

4. The partners and CRAN members should advocate with district government officials and local political leadership for poor education outcomes and should strengthen district for effective implementation of Article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan, which asks for free, and compulsory education.

5. CRAN should be supported in developing their databases and reporting of child protection cases with emphasis on linkages development with stakeholders.

6. Half of deliveries of children take place at home by untrained birth attend-ants. The project partners should work with secondary duty bearers to sensitize them about sexual reproductive health, and undertake consultation with communities on methods to impart sexual reproductive health education.

7. The stakeholders should strengthen its current Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy especially Child Centered community based disaster risk reduction plans developed by local community groups. The SCF Pakistan programme currently focuses on the involvement of children in their activities, and breaking the exclusion factors and dynamic pressures exerted by powerful groups.

INTRODUCTION- COUNTRY CONTEXT Pakistan has an estimated population of 184.5 millions with a projection of reaching over 350 million by 2050.

Nearly 50% of Pakistan’s population is under 20 years, and about 68% is under 30 years. The size, growth and age distribution demands a high and sustained GDP growth. Pakistan is ranked 146th in the Human Development Index 2013 where 60% of the population is living with poverty and 1/5th of living below poverty line of income less than one dollar per day. Pakistan’s urbanization is expected to reach over 50% by 2025.

The constitution of Pakistan considers education as a fundamental right and Article 25A, of the 18th constitutional amendment, declares “education free and compulsory for all children of the age of 5 to 16 years, in such manner as may be determined by law.” The latest available data shows that the literacy rate improved slightly in 2011-12 reaching 58 percent compared to 56 percent in 2008.

Infant mortality rate and Under 5 mortality rate in Pakistan are significantly higher than the South Asian group of countries. The major causes of these high rates of mortality include malnutrition, diarrhea, acute respiratory illness, and other communicable and vaccine-preventable diseases. Factors including inadequate health infrastructure in the country, unhealthy living environment, lack of awareness about basic health requirements among general public, unequal distribution of health facilities and poverty are responsible for low life expectancy in the country.

Poor living conditions due to low nutritious food and unsafe water are likely to increase incidence of diseases among disaster prone communities.

Pakistan has shown low macro-economic stability.

Poor tax paying capacities combined with high military

spending’s on war against terrorism and debt interest has left Pakistan with limited money for government expenditures i.e. 0.8% and 1.8% of GDP on health and education respectively. The military operations in Tribal Areas of Pakistan coupled with natural disasters displaced millions people and generated substantial reconstruction. Only 62% of Pakistan has access to electricity and there is consistent Load Shedding that hit the business activities badly.

The government of Pakistan enacted 18th constitutional amendment in April 2010, with revised national finance commission 2009, which resulted in shift of legislative and administrative authority from the Federation to the Provinces. Resultantly, 17 federal Ministries including all social services like education, health, environment, women development, etc. had been devolved to the provinces The provinces are still in the process of acquiring and equipping themselves with necessary capacities and skills to adapt with new administrative changes. Under newly approved Local Government Act 2013, Punjab provinces proposed the creation of created the district education and health authorities but it cannot be made active till local bodies election are held in the province.

Pakistan is one of the world’s most hazard prone countries. Floods in 2010, 2011 and 2012 caused humanitarian crises when communities coping capacities were exceeded, affecting tens of millions of people over the course of 3 years. Climate change is increasingly putting a strain on the availability of water resulting in low crop production. During the last 20 years, 140 climate-change triggered events in Pakistan lead to an average of 500 deaths every year and a loss of $200 million to the country’s economy.

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SCOPE AND PURPOSE Save the Children and its partners were interested to obtain a child rights situation analysis in two districts of Pakistan i.e. Muzaffargarh and Sanghar, which are two the marginalized districts of Pakistan with low socioeconomic indicators, and vulnerable to disasters. The project was expected to generate necessary evidence for identification of gaps that would be helpful in developing proactive advocacy required at different levels, and strengthen programme management by addressing the gaps for effective service delivery. It was also hoped that such an analysis would provide evidence for provincial and national campaigns and advocacy strategies. The project was initiated at the end of 2010 and this report presents current situation of the district i.e. August 2013 The overall purpose of the Child Rights Situation Analysis (CRSA) was to assess and analyze the gaps in the fulfillment of children’s rights as envisaged in the UNCRC in South Punjab and Central Sindh with specific focus on the districts of Muzaffargarh in Punjab province and Sanghar in Sindh province.

The scope and purpose of the situation analysis was to: • Map violations of children’s rights (including gaps in provision) and examine the immediate and root causes of these violations • Identify duty bearers who are responsible for stopping and preventing child rights violations and provide an analysis of their actions/practices (if any) that proved to be useful, also identify causes/factors that prevented duty bearers from taking actions against child rights violations • Analyze what internal and external factors may hinder the realization of children’s rights at different levels, i.e., community and government both.

• Analyze current and likely future trends in violations of children’s rights • Analysis of provincial level legislation for the fulfillment of children’s right to education and protection.

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• Identify, in broad terms, particular groups and subgroups of children whose rights are denied on the grounds of discrimination and suggest remedial actions to prevent such negative tendencies in future.

Primary Objectives • To identify and analyze the immediate and underlying causes of violations of rights, disaggregated data of the affected children and trends over the last 3 years.

• To identify and analyze the gaps between policy, planning and implementation with taking into account its effects on the rights of children at the District level as envisaged in the UN CRC. • To build the capacity of the Child Rights Advocacy Network on technical areas of the CRSA. • To present clear, concrete, realistic and practical recommendations this must be in line with the context.

Secondary Objectives • To collect information from primary and secondary sources and analyze it for availability, access and quality of facilities essential for the fulfillment of child rights.

• To analyze the extent to which duty bearers, key actors and stakeholders are able to protect and fulfill children’s rights, and where possible forecast the likely trend of this in the near future.

• To identify the opportunities and constraints for civil society in general and CRAN in particular to make a significant contribution to the fulfillment of children’s rights in both districts in the near future • To identify examples and best practices being initiated by communities with regard to prevention of child rights

METHODOLOGY The study was conducted using a combined qualitative and quantitative approach for gathering information from the stakeholders and local communities. It was agreed that services of CRAN established in both districts would be utilized for data collection from their respective union councils so that these organizations would realize the situation of their areas themselves and at the same time build their own capacities in collecting such information wherever needed.

In order to achieve the objectives, the following process of situation analysis for child rights perspectives was used for this study.

Review of Secondary Documents The key documents used included the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey 2010-2011 and 2011-12, Economic Survey of Pakistan 2010-11, State Bank of Pakistan Report 2010 and 2011, Labour Force Survey 2010-11, Pakistan Education Statistics Report 2010, Annual Status of Education Report 2012, Alif Ailaan Report 2013, Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2006-07 and preliminary report 2012-13, Pakistan Framework for Economic Growth 2011, Pakistan Household Integrated Economic Survey 2010-2011, Social Indicators of Pakistan 2011, PRSP II Period Progress Report FY 2008/09 - FY 2010/11, State of Pakistan’s Children Report 2012, Draft Punjab Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Report 2011. The latest Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) was not available for Sindh and the situation after the 2010 and 2011 floods had changed significantly in both provinces. There were certain challenges for Sindh to collect necessary information as the change of district boundaries in recent years influenced both collection and interpretation of the indicators.

Development of Questionnaire As per indicators, a list of questions was agreed with Save the Children, Devcon and Sycope, and then converted into a questionnaire having both quantitative and qualitative information. Union Council was agreed as the unit of data collection for each questionnaire.

The questionnaire was translated into Urdu for the ease of the focal persons nominated by the local member organization of CRAN.

Training of CRAN Members 1-2 days training was organized for 83 focal persons nominated by each member organization of CRAN. The basic minimum criterion was minimum of 10 years schooling. Each organization was assigned 3-5 union councils. At the end of the training, the participants conducted mock exercises to gain a thorough familiarity with the questionnaires.

Data Collection and Field Visits 78 CRAN members collected the data from primary and local sources after receiving training. These visited their respective UCs and met with community members, LHWs, Teachers, Secretaries of UC and local security institutions. A team of four members from Avicenna Consulting provided back up support and facilitation in data collection and dialogues where needed in both district.The last section of the questionnaire related to Child Protection was comprised of field observations and overall suggestions of the focal persons of CRAN to improve the situation.

Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Semi Structured Interviews (SSIs) A total of 12 FGDs were conducted in district Muzaffargarh, 6 FGDs with Children (1 with girls, 1 with boys and 4 with mixed groups) and 6 with adults (3 male and 3 female groups). Female discussion groups included housewives, cotton pickers, domestic workers, a college student, teachers etc, while male discussion groups included agri workers, daily wages laborers, donkey cart drivers, tea stall owners etc.

A total of 9 FGDs were conducted including 7 FGDs with adults (4 with males and 3 with females) and 2 FGDs with children in district Sanghar. Participants of the group discussions represented all walks of life, ranging from house wives to cotton pickers, domestic workers to teachers and volunteers, agri workers to snake catchers (jogi), skilled laborers to scavengers etc Key informant and In-depth interviews These were held with district government officials and participating organizations. Total six government Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

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officers from education, health and social welfare departments were approached and interviewed. The checklist of questions mentioned earlier was used with key informants as a guideline.

Data entry, Analysis and Report At the end of data collection, review workshops were organized in both districts to seek and respond to clarifications. Data entry and cleaning was done. Data Analysis, Conclusions, and Recommendations focusing on the scope of the situation, analysis of data was based on triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data and content analysis, conclusions from the analysis and recommendation of the key findings from document review and relevant articles concerning child rights.

Limitations For Sindh, we did not have any latest estimates of MICS and Development Statistics. The latest draft MICS survey was done in 2003-2004 whose results are contested and Development Statistics were published in 2008, which have changed significantly after floods of 2010, 2011 and 2012. Thus, we were unable to provide and verify some key indicators of health

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and child protection for Sanghar district. Different members of CRAN have various levels of capacities and understanding of the communities. There was variation in quality of information generated by different organizations, as this was a very new activity for many of them.

In addition, there may be difference in the information shared by the CRAN members through data collection compared to secondary sources due to limitations of capacities but equally due the prevailing ground situation at the time of survey. The sampled primary data of secondary documents had been collected in 2010/2011 and is published in 2012/2013. Whereas CRAN members collected data in July/August 2013, hence there is gap of about three years.

Data given by the CRAN are rounded figures and are best estimates as per information of local communities.

Some of the CRAN members had not submitted verified data.

Data of child protection collected by CRAN members is highly influenced by virtue of their knowledge and working in the communities for many years compared to secondary documents or sources where sampled data is collected by third party.

DISTRICT PROFILE - MUZAFFARGARH District Muzaffargarh is one of the oldest districts of the Punjab, Pakistan. The town of Muzaffargarh was founded in 1794 by the Governor of Multan Nawab Muzaffar Khan. The meaning of Muzaffargarh is “Fort of Muzaffar�. It lies in the south of the Punjab in a form of a strip between the river Chenab and Indus, which passes along the Eastern and Western boundaries of the districts respectively and form a triangle at Alipur tehsil of the district.

The district is bounded in the North by the newly

created district Layyah, on the South, across the river Chenab, by Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts.

Districts Multan and Khanewal are on the Eastern side of district Muzaffargarh across the river Chenab, while Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts are on the Western side across the river Indus. Muzaffargarh is spread over an area of 8,249 sq Kms. According to the 1998 census of Pakistan, the population of the district was 2,635,903, of which 12.75% were urban.

Administratively, Muzaffargarh is divided into 4 teshils and 93 union councils.

Figure 1 - Map of Punjab Province

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DISTRICT PROFILE - SANGHAR District Sanghar is one of the largest districts of Sindh province, Pakistan.The town of Sanghar was formerly a small village. It was named after a pious fisher woman, Mai Singhar. It is located in the centre of Sindh and is bounded by India in the East and district Khairpur in north. Districts Umer Kot and Mirpur Khas are

towards its South and District Hyderabad to its West.

In northwest district Nawabshah is located. According to the 1998 census of Pakistan, the total district population was 1,453,028 of which 22.13% was urban.

Administratively, Sanghar is divided into 6 Talukas and 55 Union Councils with a total area of 10608 sq Kms.

Figure 1 - Map of Sindh Province

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LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE CONTEXT Pakistan operates as a federal entity with five provincial administrative units and two other units having different administrative structures. In 2010, the Parliament of Pakistan passed the 18th Constitutional amendment, which strengthened provincial autonomy in light of the Constitution of Pakistan approved in 1973. The national Policy and Plan of Action for Children, prepared by National Commission for Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD), and approved by the federal cabinet on May 26, 2006 focused on promoting healthy lives, combating HIV AIDS, providing quality education, and protection with specific goals and key actions are under every focused area. The Draft Child Protection Policy (CPP) was submitted to the Cabinet Division in August 2009 and is still under approval process.

Besides the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill 2013, the long awaited Child Protection (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, the National Commission for the Rights of Child Bill, the Charter of Child Rights Bill, and Child Marriages Restrain Amendment Bill 2009 are pending with the parliament of Pakistan. In Pakistan, the NCCWD is responsible for coordinating the implementation of UNCRC and reporting. The NCCWD, established through an executive order has no legal standing and very limited human and financial resources and is mostly dependent on donor funding. Also, as there is no statutory body, and the recommendations of NCCWD are not considered seriously by various ministries and departments.

Punjab The Government of the Punjab passed the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act in 2004 and this was amended in 2007. Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) is an autonomous body of the Government of Punjab mandated to protect and rehabilitate destitute and neglected children through provision of an environment that maximizes opportunities for childhood development and promotes access to education, health care and psychological well being. The Bureau was established

under the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children (First Amendment) Act 2007, which is an effective legal framework in line with the UNCRC. CPWB is currently delivering child protection services in seven districts of the province including Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Dera Ghazi Khan. After the devolution, the Punjab Government is planning to adopt, modify or enact certain laws. The Employment of Children Act (ECA 1991) is also one of the federal laws, which is under the process of adoption.

Sindh The Sindh Children Act (SCA) of 1955 was the first juvenile justice and child protection law enacted in Sindh after independence and, until 2011, was the last such law that had made its way into the statute books.

The law remained dormant for nearly two decades, and was only applied to the divisions of Hyderabad and Sukkur, when Sindh was reconstituted as a province in 1974.Two years later, the law was expanded to include Karachi. Even though it is currently officially in force throughout Sindh, its implementation has been limited to the city of Karachi.

The Sindh Child Protection Authority Bill, 2011 was passed by the Sindh Assembly on May 16, 2011 and became a law with the provincial governors assent on June 9, 2011. Under Section 10 of the Act, an 11-member authority was set up to coordinate and monitor child protection issues at the provincial and district levels. The authority would further ensure the rights of children in need of special protection measures, and support and establish institutional mechanisms for child protection and make necessary efforts to enhance and strengthen existing services of child welfare organizations. The authority would also set minimum standards for all other institutions relating to children, including educational institutions, orphanages, shelter homes, remand homes, certified schools, youthful offender workplaces, child parks and hospitals, and ensure implementation.

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HEALTH PROVIDER 60% 50% 40% 30%

About two-fifths of health providers in Sanghar and about half in Muzaffargarh were quacks (unqualified practitioners).

1/4th in Sanghar and 1/12th in Muzaffargarh are MBBS.

Sanghar Muzaffargarh

50.8

36.9

24.5

22.4

20% 12.0 10%

8.6

MBBS

11.4

10.4 4.2

5.2

Quack

Dispenser

Hakeem

6.8

6.81

Homeopathic

Others

Ownership of Health Centres In Muzaffargarh and Sanghar, government owned health centres accounted for 40% and 44% respectively, This suggests that about half of all health centres are privately owned.

Figure 4 : Immunization Coverage % Record and Recall 100% 90% 80% 70%

Skilled Birth Attendants

60%

About three-fifths (60%) of traditional birth attendants in Sanghar and about half (50%) in Muzaffargarh are untrained. The birth data also shows that only 51% of births Muzaffargarh and 45% in Sanghar took place at a health centre.

50%

About three-fifths (60%) of traditional birth attendants in Sanghar and about half (50%) in Muzaffargarh are untrained.

87

79

81

83

55

76

61

76

40% 30% 20% 10%

Muzaffargarh Male Baseline

Male Current

Sanghar Female Baseline

Female Current

Diarrhoea Birth Registration The indicator is the percentage of children under 5 years of age whose birth is registered, the birth certificate was seen by the interviewer, or whose mothers or caretakers say the birth was registered.

Muzaffargarh indicated that 70% of births had a birth certificate, while Sanghar revealed a rate of 56%. MICS of Punjab data shows that the birth of 47.5% of children under five years is registered with civil authorities, while 25.8% did not have a birth certificate.

About 13% of children under 5 years in Muzaffargarh and 33% in Sanghar had diarrhea. In Muzaffargarh and Sanghar, private dispensary’s or hospitals were the most frequently consulted for treatment of diarrhoea in 52% and 41% respectively, followed by government facilities or health workers in 20% and 57% respectively . An interesting observation is the practice of consulting pharmacies/medical stores for treatment of diarrhoea.

This practice did not feature prominently in Sindh. In Muzaffargarh, 67% of children under 5 years who had diarrhoea received Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), while in Sanghar the rate of use of ORS was 77% .

Immunization The provincial average rate for fully immunized children 12-23 months is 86% for Punjab and 71% for Sindh, while the district average immunization rate (fully immunized) for Muzaffargarh is 84%, and 58% for Sanghar . Recent MICS data from Punjab indicates that about a third (33.1%) of children aged 12-23 months have not received any vaccination in Muzaffargarh.

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Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

Mortality Rates The national Maternal Mortality Rate is estimated at 276 per 100,000 live births, the Infant Mortality Rate is 74 deaths per 1000 live births and Under-5 Mortality Rate is 89 deaths per 1000 live births .

The Punjab Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2011 indicates that Muzaffargarh has an IMR of 97 and U5MR of 124 . In Sindh, recent Multiple Indicator

Cluster Survey data was not available, and last MICS was done 2033-2004 for which data is out of context due to geographical changes.

Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) In Pakistan, ARI is the commonest cause of Infant Mortality at 27.8%, followed by septicemia at 27.2% and diarrhoea at 24.2% . Districts with high incidence of ARI included Muzaffargarh in Punjab. In Sindh, 34% of all cases of ARI were due to pneumonia, while in Punjab they accounted for 16%. About 6.3% of children under five years in Muzaffargarh had an acute respiratory infection in the last two weeks.

Current Interventions Following the 18th Constitutional Amendment leading to devolution, all of the national health programmes have been devolved to the provinces. Some are in the process of devolution and may continue in the Public Sector Development Programme until 2015.

The following national programmes are now being implemented as provincial programmes: Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI); National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care (LHW Programme); National Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) Programme; National AIDS Control Programme; National Nutrition Programme; National Malaria Control Programme; and National Programme for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis.

Nutritional Status The latest National Nutrition Survey (NNS) undertaken in 2011 has revealed a Global Acute Malnutrition (wasting) rate of 15.1%, higher than the NNS 2001, which was 13%; with wasting at 12.6% and 16.1% in the urban and rural populations respectively. The rate of stunting has also increased from 40% in 2001 to 43.6% in 2011. The exclusive breastfeeding rates have however, improved from 39% in 2001 to 64.7% in the recent 2011 survey The emergency situation had serious implications on the nutritional status of children under five years, pregnant and lactating women due to the contaminated water, poor sanitation/hygiene, interruption in caring practices and limited food availability and diversity at household level. Onefifth of newborns are low birth weight and 38% of under-5 children are underweight . About 18% of newborns in Punjab and 20% in Sindh were found to have low birth weight. 21% of children under 1 years of age were registered for growth monitoring in Punjab and 31% were registered in Sindh. One out of six children under 3 years of age in Punjab and one in four children under 3 years in Sindh were found to have moderate to severe malnutrition.

In under 5 years children in Muzaffargarh, 44.2% were reported as being underweight, 48.7% having stunting and 16.7% having wasting (% below 2 standard deviations) . About two fifths (41.5%) of children 0-5 months in Muzaffargarh were predominantly breastfed, while 69.2% continued breastfeeding at one year. Data for Sanghar is not available.

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SUCCESS STORY

Brave and Ambitious: Shehzaib Shahzaib is a 17 years old brave teenager. He is a cancer patient who lives in Chak 4 of UC (Union Council) Kadwari in District Sanghar. His father Shoukat Ali is a retired Army personnel. Shahzaib has 3 brothers and 3 sisters, who all are enrolled in school and Shahzaib is the eldest from all his siblings.

Three years ago he got ill but all the doctors in Sanghar and Hyderabad were unable to diagnose him properly. His cancer was eventually diagnosed in Karachi where he was asked to submit Rs 1 million for cancer treatment. His family was unable to pay that much money.

However, a charity in Karachi offered him free treatment, but meeting the transportation cost from Sanghar to Karachi was also a challenge for shahzaib’s family. His father decided to take a flat in Karachi and he took a loan for that purpose. Shahzaib came back home to Sanghar after 2 years.

He has to visit the doctor after every month for checkup and injections. He now feels better. His courage and hope has made him healthy and his strong will has given him the power to fight this disease.

Shahzaib is a hard working student who recently appeared in the 10thGrade examinations. He secured 68% marks in the board exams of 9th Grade even after having serious health issues.

Moreover, Shahzaib is the president of Child Club of Kadwari, which works for children’s rights.

He motivates his team members of the child club to spread awareness among people, especially parents of working children to send them to school by emphasizing the importance of education.

The child club conveys their message also by organizing interactive theater dramas on child abuse and early marriage issues.

Shahzaib wants to continue his education and also wishes to help his father in generating money to run their house expenses. For this purpose he plans to do a part time job along with his education.

In future, he wishes to become a commissioned officer in army.

Shahzaib is a role model in his village for all children. He is working hard for his studies, for his future and for the betterment of his community.

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Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

RIGHT TO QUALITY EDUCATION Types of Schools Government schools remained the commonest type of school for education. In Sanghar, more than 95% schools are Government Schools. While in Muzaffargarh 75% are Government Schools, 18 % are private schools and 3% are religious schools.

Figure 5 : Types of Schools Sanghar

120%

Muzaffargarh

100% 80%

In Muzaffargarh, a third (36%) of girls and about half (46%) of the boys completed their primary education, while in Sanghar two-fifths (41%) of girls and boys achieved primary school completion.

NET Enrolment Rates (NER) The NER for Pakistan as a whole in 2010-11 is 56 per cent as compared to 57 percent in 2008-09. Comparing NERs for the two districts, Muzaffargarh had a NER of 48% and Sanghar of 54%. Generally girls have a lower enrolment rate than boys and the difference is markedly larger in rural areas than in urban areas.

60% 40% 20%

Other

Religious

Private

Government

The recently released district education rankings have shown that Muzaffargarh has a NER for girls in primary school of 48% and for boys of 63%. In Sanghar, the NER for girls in primary school is 54% and for boys is 68%.

Grading of Schools In Muzaffargarhabout a third of schools were girls schools (31%) and another third were mixed schools (31%) in Muzaffargarh. In Sanghar, about 60% were boys schools, 26% were mixed while only 14% were girls schools.

Literacy

Figure 6 : Grading of Schools

In Muzaffargarh, the student to teacher ratio is 76, while in Sanghar it is 33. However, the girl students to female teacher ratio is 66 in Muzaffargarh and 42 in Sanghar.

Sanghar

Muzaffargarh

80%

The literacy rate for population 10 years and above is 58% during 2010-11, as compared to 57% in 2008-09 .

Province wise, Punjab leads with 60% and Muzaffargarh at 43%, followed by Sindh with 59% and Sanghar at 51%.

60% 40%

Pre-School Education

20%

Other

Secondary

Middle

Primary

Non Formal

School attendance About two-fifths (40%) of all school children in Muzaffargarh were girls, compared to less than a third (28%) in Sanghar. In Muzaffargarh, a little over a third (37%) of all students who completed their last academic year were girls. According to the ASER 2012 report , the out of school rate for children aged 6-16 years in Muzaffargarh was 22.8%, while in Sanghar it was 40.4%.

The primary school completion rate for girls and boys in Muzaffargarh was 36% and 46% respectively, while in Sanghar the rate for girls and boys was 41% each . Recent MICS data for Punjab shows primary school completion rate for Muzaffargarh is 53.8% of which 94.4% children transition to secondary school .

The recent report on Annual Status of Education 2012 reveals that Muzaffargarh has a pre-school in age 3-5 years attendance rate of 36.5%, while Sanghar has a rate of 29.2%. Overall, about half of the children aged 3-5 years were attending pre-school in Punjab, while in Sindh, the proportion was less than 40%.

Status of Basic Facilities In Sanghar, only 16% schools have latrines for girls while it is 50% in Muzaffargarh. Futher 3/5th school sin Muzaffargarh have desk The above findings differ from the district ranking report that indicates 44% schools had water and 52% had a latrine in Sanghar, while in Muzaffargarh it was 91% and 79% respectively. The Muzaffargarh data is similar to the findings of this study. Over 7% of schools in Muzaffargarh and 9% in Sanghar were destroyed (completely or partially) by floods or other causes.

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Figure 7: Status of Basic Facilities

Sanghar

Muzaffargarh

100% 80% 60% 40% 20%

Girls Laterine

Laterine

Water

Desks

Rooms

Differences in data of Sanghar are due to timings of data collection as district ranking was done on 2010 data.

People prefer their children to work instead of educating them. The main reasons are poverty and if a child can add even a little to the family income that is considered as a blessing. Education is a burden on the poor parents as they mentioned its not only going to far away schools and expensive books and uniforms, the only teacher in these schools are often absent and

children waste time in going and coming back. That time can be spent in more productive activities like working. Apart from that, teachers also involve children in their own household chores and at times the intense physical punishments also make parents to drop out their children from schools. One group mentioned that teachers are losing their respect because they are no more teachers; they are not teaching and are busy in private tuitions and making money.

One group in district Sanghar mentioned that the school and books are free but still they are reluctant to send their children to school. It is also a deep concern of the poor parents that if even they educate their children they would not be able to get jobs and if they have to do the same labor even after getting education then why to waste time, why not to start working at the right age and time. One female group in Muzaffargarh mentioned that if they are allowed, they would send their children to Madrassa, where they not only get free religious education, but also free food and shelter.

SUCCESS STORY

Education for all can empower the community A small boy of 7 years age, Sanaullah is the son of Muhammad Liaqat. He is a hardworking child who lives in Bastivadakhoo of Union Council Baseera in district Muzaffargarh. His father is a polio affected (physically challenged) person, who drives a donkey cart to earn the family’s livelihood. His mother is mentally challenged who is unable to take care of the house and look after the children. Sanaullah’s grandparents also live with the family and are very old and need continuous care.

Sanaullah is enrolled in the first grade. He goes to the fields after coming back from school to cut grass for the goat and a cow at home. After cutting grass he seeks helps to load grass on his donkey cart because he cannot lift the heavy load. After coming back from the fields, he helps his father to cook food for the whole family.

Sanaullah also fetches drinking water for the family. He is more mature than his age. In the recent floods, a palm tree fell on their house. He mobilized others and he called for help to remove the tree away from home.

Sanaullah dreams of a bright future for himself. He wants to be a teacher to educate people of his community. He has many dreams and high hopes for his community and country.

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Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

RIGHT TO WATER AND IMPROVED SANITATION Current Situation Pakistan is a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals and has a commitment and obligations to the MDG targets relating to Sanitation and Water. Pakistan has formulated its National Environment Policy (2005), National Sanitation Policy (2006), National Drinking Water Policy (2009) and National Climate Change Policy (2012). These provide the necessary legal support for the implementation of different government initiatives coupled with interventions in the sector. There is a country commitment to implement the Pakistan Approach to Total Sanitation. .

100-150 children die every day because of diarrhoeal related illnesses – many of these deaths can be prevented by adequate sanitation, safe drinking water and improved hygiene. 60-75 million people are affected by diarrhoeal related illnesses annually . Recent survey data indicates that the proportion of population using improved sanitation increased from 37% in 2000 to 48% in 2009-2010 and flush latrines increased from 45% in 2001 to 66% in 2010-2011. Half of the rural population is without adequate sanitation and Pakistan is off-track to meet the projected MDG target of

67%. The economic impact of poor sanitation and hygiene results in an annual loss of 3.94% of the GDP . Climate change poses one of the most significant and impending threats to water and sanitation in Pakistan.

Resilience of water and sanitation systems and disaster risk reduction is critical to build adaptive capacity.

Access to Water The commonest source of water was the use of hand pump and motor pump in the districts in Punjab and Sindh. Muzaffargarh rated 75% use of hand-pump and 1% for tap water, while Sanghar reported 58% and 20% respectively.

Access to Improved Sanitation In Muzaffargarh, the rates of use of flush toilet, nonflush toilet and no toilet were 45%, 12% and 44% respectively, while for Sanghar they were 42%, 51% and 6% respectively . The data indicates that about two-fifths of households in Muzaffargarh do not have a latrine.

Little Ishrat’s dream to become a schoolteacher

Ishrat has 5 sisters and 2 brothers. Her father, Mehrab Khan is a farmer who works as a Hari (agricultural land laborer) earning very little income to meet his family needs. Her mother along with her sisters go for cotton picking to generate some extra income. Her family is poor where every member is worried about earning a meal for the next day.

Ishrat visits her home for a week after every 2 to 3 months. She has to live away from her family for a long time and misses her family a

lot during this separation period. Her employer hands over some money to Ishrat’s family against her services. Sometimes her family members come to visit her, but primarily to take money from the employer.

She is living in her employer’s house for the last 1 year as a worker. For Ishrat, receiving religious and formal education from her employer is the main incentive for her work there. She is learning to read Quran from a local maulvi (Quran teacher). She is very fond of school study and sometimes gets a chance to look at and read books of her employer’s children.

SUCCESS STORY

At 9 years of age, Ishrat is a small girl who works as a maid in Shahar Sultan Union Council of District Muzaffargarh. She originally belongs to Basti Azmatpur near Head Pannat.

With her yearning to study, she learns Urdu Qaida (basic alphabets booklet) from other children. She wants to become a teacher in future to educate other girls like her who cannot afford education.

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RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF LIVING Pakistan Poverty Reduction Strategy

Figure 9 : Income Patterns

The economy registered lower growth mainly due to the massive floods that hit the country in last three consecutive years. The catastrophic floods were huge and its devastating consequences were witnessed in the form of a sharp decline in nearly all-macroeconomic indicators. The government of Pakistan has made strenuous efforts to protect the poor and vulnerable sections of society from social and economic exclusion. The measures taken in this regard during the PRSP-II period (FY2008/09FY2010/11) include Zakat, Employee Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI), Worker’s Welfare Fund (WWF), Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal (PBM), Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), Microfinance and other such schemes.

In Muzaffargarh, about a third (32.8%) of houses

45%

Figure 8 : Economic Indicators

Sanghar

Muzaffargarh

60%

Sanghar

Muzaffargarh

40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5%

< 6,000

6,000 - 10,000

> 10,000

were of katcha type, while two-fifths (40.6%) were of the pakka type, and the remainder as mixed type.

In Sanghar, there was a similar picture of a third that were katcha (33.3%), two-fifths (39.3%) pakka and the remainder mixed type.

Nearly half of the population in both districts showed their engagement in agriculture businesses. Nearly 10% population is engaged in Government jobs. The level of skilled labour is less than 5%.

50% 40% 30% 20% 10%

Agriculture Government

Private

Business

Skilled Labor

Temporary

Others

More than 2/3rd populations in both districts have Households income of PKRs 6000 per month. 1/4th HHs in Sanghar and 1/5th HHs in Muzaffargarh have income of more than PKRs 10,000 per month.

Dream to be a medical technician to serve his people SUCCESS STORY

Muhammad Ishaq son of Zulfiqar Ali is 17 years old. Ishaqâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father is a Hari (agricultural laborer) earning very little income.

Two of his brothers work with his father and one elder brother works in a cotton mill to earn extra money for the family. The family is going through hard times despite the fact that every member is earning and contributing to family income.

Ishaq wanted to get education right from his childhood. He passed the secondary school exams (8thgrade) and moved on to the 9th grade with keen interest and zeal. He prepared well for the board exams but was denied admission due to not having the Form-B (birth certificate).

His application for Form-B was pending with

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Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

the concerned government department for the last 3 years. Ishaq had to pay 10,000 rupees as bribe to different officers to solve the issue but to no avail. Ultimately, the situation resulted in demoralization and pushed Ishaq to abandon further efforts to educate himself.

Ishaq now works in a welfare hospital in Khanpur where he earns 3000 rupees a month.

His employer is a social worker and promised Muhammad Ishaq to help to complete his education. He is still worried about provision of the Form-B to continue his studies.

Ishaq has developed interest for the medical field and wishes to become a medical technician.

He hopes that his desire of continuing further education will be fulfilled and he will be able to get hold of necessary documents required for admission. All this progress will enable him to serve his deprived community.

RIGHT TO SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) is a priority agenda of the government. Pakistan is a signatory of many international development strategies, including MDGs and the government is committed to achieve a reduction in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by 2015. To address this issue, the government is committed to increase the proportion of deliveries by skilled birth attendants from 40 percent to 90 percent and also to increase the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) from 30 percent to 55 percent.

Tetanus Toxoid Immunization for Pregnant Women The coverage in Punjab increased by 14 percentage points in TT-1 (Tetanus Toxoid-1) immunization and 11 percentage points in TT-2+ (Tetanus Toxoid-2+) immunization during FY2009/10 to FY 2010/11.

Immunization coverage in Sindh increased by 18 percentage points for TT-1 and 15 percentage points for TT-2+. Pregnant women in Muzaffargarh had a 72% rate of receiving Tetanus Toxoid, while only 34% received it in Sanghar . Recent Punjab MICS data shows that three-fifths (62.6%) of women aged 15-49 years received at least two does of tetanus protection during their last pregnancy and that seven out of ten women (68.2%) are protected against tetanus.

Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) Based on the latest Contraceptive Performance Report 2010-11 from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the CPR for Pakistan on the basis of modern methods is 18.06%, while that for Punjab is 15.62% and Sindh is 13.6% . In Muzaffargarh, only 27% of women aged 1549 years were using any form of contraception and it is 32% in Sanghar District.

Pre Natal Consultations Both Muzaffargarh and Sanghar had a pre-natal consultation rate of 55%. Muzaffargarh and Sanghar had higher consultation at private hospital or clinic in 52% and 43% respectively, than government facility (government hospital, Rural Health Centre or Basic Health Unit) in 32% and 31% respectively .

Child Delivery The vast majority of births in 2010-11 took place at home (57% in Punjab and 52% in Sindh). In rural areas, some 66% deliveries took place at home in Punjab compared to 73% in Sindh. The trend of delivery at home in Muzaffargarh is 81%, while at Sanghar it is 62% .

The most commonly cited source of assistance in rural areas was trained Dai (39%), doctor (26%), followed by traditional birth attendant (17%) in Punjab. In Sindh, the most commonly cited source of assistance in rural areas was trained Dai (27%), doctor (25%), traditional birth attendant (23%), followed by family member/ relative (18%) in Sindh.

Any formal adolescence guidance system does not exist. There are informal ways of guiding young boys and girls about their adolescence that proves insufficient. The informal guides involve mothers, religious teachers, family elders in case of girls while boys often seek guidance from elders, peer groups and Imam-e-Masjid etc. These informal guides themselves have limited knowledge on reproductive health and adolescence issues that they transfer to their young children. At times wrong guidance or insufficient information leads young adults to ill health and bad practices.

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

20

RIGHT TO PROTECTION FROM ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE Child Labour

Figure 11 : Drug Addicts

According to Pakistan Employment Trends 2011 and Labour Force Survey 2010-11 , 4.5% of Punjabâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s labour force comes from 10-14 years age group. Overall, males constituted 2.7% and females 1.8% of labour force aged 10-14 years. In Sindh, 6.6% of the labour force comes from the 10-14 years age group. Overall, males constituted 4.9% and females 1.7% of labour force aged 10-14 years. Current findings indicate that child labour in Muzaffargarh is 18.29%, and it is 13.87% in Sanghar. MICS data from Punjab indicates that Muzaffargarh has an overall child labour rate of 17.4% in children aged 5-14 years, 12.1% in 5-11 years, and 32.1% in 12-14 years. No latest MICS data for Sindh is available.

4.5%

Figure 10 : Percentage of Child Labour 9%

Sanghar

Muzaffargarh

8.47

8%

7.08 7% 6%

4.82

5%

4.75

4%

3.07 3%

1.98

2% 1%

1.80 0.15 Bonded

Agriculture

Domestic

Muzaffargarh

Sanghar

4.12

4.0% 3.5% 3.0%

2.56 2.5% 2.0%

1.37

1.5%

1.21 0.95

1.0%

0.60 0.5 %

0.09

0.07

Reported

Not Reported

Treated

Total

Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Kidnapping About 4.7% children in Muzaffargarh and 1.7% in Sanghar were victims of human trafficking, smuggling and kidnapping. The commonest causes were begging and bonded labour in both districts. There was a two fold or more increase in victim rates over CRSA figure of 1% in Sgnhar and 0.5% in Muzaffargarh. Improved reporting may partly account for this increase other than actual increase in victims.

Social protection systems within the communities include family/tribe elders, which is the first line of contact in case of conflicts related to missing children and human trafficking along with any child protection

Other

Current findings indicate that the prevalence of drug addicts among children in Muzaffargarh and Sanghar is 4.12% and 1.37% respectively.

Figure 12: Sexual Abuse

Muzaffargarh

Sanghar

2.5%

1.93

2.0%

1.55 1.5%

Childhood Vulnerability Data collected by CRAN members for CRSA showed that the child sexual abuse in Muzaffargrah is 1.95% of which 0.38% are reported. In Sanghar, the case are 0.38% and only 0.06% are reported. In summary, out of every 1000 children 19 are victims of sexual abuse and only 4 cases are reported.

Muzaffargarh in Punjab had a prevalence rate of childhood disability of 1.55%, while Sanghar had 0.86%.

Muzaffargarh had a higher proportion of affected children (12.46%) compared to 6.38% in Sanghar owing to the large number children reported as destitute.

The prevalence of missing children was 0.77% in Muzaffargarh and 0.23% in Sanghar.

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Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

1.0% 0.5%

0.06

0.38

0.38

0.32 Total

Not Reported

Reported

Figure 13: Affected Children

Sanghar

Muzaffargarh

14%

12.46

12% 10% 8%

6.01

6.38

6% 4%

2.93 1.55

2%

0.86

Disabled

2.51

1.92

Orphans

0.96

0.98

0.34

0.72

Displaced

Deserted

Destitute

Total

issues. Then the Jirga, Wadera, Imam Masjid and local political leaders are contacted as second option.

Lastly Police, Thana, Kacheri is involved that makes the conflict a ‘never ending story’. In FGDs, none of the participants show satisfaction or confidence in any of the above-mentioned systems.

Figure 14 : Victims of Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Kidnapping

Muzaffargarh

Sanghar

2.5%

2.07

1.96

2.0% 1.5%

1.21

1.0%

0.47

0.5 %

Camel Race

0.05 Bonded Labour

0.35

0.34

0.00 0.01 Begging

Ransom

0.02 Others

Child labor include agriculture, where children are involved in work where adult workers want to save time like goddi, grass cutting, removing weeds, picking cotton or vegetables or fruits etc. Apart from these, they work as helpers or roadside hotels/tea stalls, venders, driving donkey carts, livestock rearing, helping and learning at auto shops etc.

Children at work face a number of problems, the commonest being intense physical punishments and long working hours. Those who are staying away from home at work place are vulnerable to abuses, as sexual abuse, using them for thefts, involves them in gambling, rooster fights, marbles etc. These boys usually get into drugs, cigarettes, alcohol etc.

Figure 15 : Domestic Violence 7%

Domestic Violence Domestic violence was reported in 15.0% of children in Muzaffargarh and 3.4% in Sanghar. Physical, emotional and economical were the commonest forms of domestic violence in both districts. Both districts reported higher rates of domestic violence.

Participants of all FGDs admitted that children are involved in some kind of labour. Girls are mostly involved in household work, domestic maids, looking after young siblings in absence of mothers, going for agri work/cotton picking with the family etc while common labor for boys is working in the fields/ orchids, auto shops, dhaba/road side hotels/tea stalls, working at brick kilns, street venders etc. In district Muzafargarh, children are involved in learning skills and this trend is gaining more popularity these days.

Children involved in labor often face certain abuses, be it in the form of physical punishments, emotional or verbal abuses or to the extreme extent – sexual abuses. All children, especially boys who have to stay away from home due to their work are vulnerable and exposed to all kinds of abuses.These abuses mostly go un-reported but affect children. At the same time girls who work as domestic maids in other places and have to stay long hours away from home are also vulnerable.

Due to lack of guidance and access to drugs, 80% boys are addicted to heroin, chars, paan gutka, and cigarette, even locally made alcohol that is available at 150 Rs. Per liter in the district. Along with these gambling, thefts and watching ill-legal films is another abuse that boys are exposed to selling blood at the emergency department of local hospitals. At times to get money for drugs, they get involved in robbery and thefts.

Muzaffargarh

Sanghar 6.69

6% 5% 4%

3.19 3%

2.75

2%

1.50

1%

0.73

Physical

Emotional

1.42 0.97

0.79

0.35

Economical

Sexual

0.08

Other

Child Marriages The findings indicate that child marriages under 14 years in Muzaffargarh for boys is 4.6% and 8.9% for girls respectively. While in Sanghar, it is 12.2% for boys and 21.2% for girls under 14 years. Overall nearly half of the children get married before reaching the age of 18 years.

In FGDs, all the participants shared that marriages were arranged in early age, especially for girls. The current average age for marriages for boys is 17-18 years while for girls it is 14-16. Parents suggested the ideal age for marriage should be 24-25 years for boys and 18-20 years for girls, according to their social environment. In some communities/families, marriages are arranged at the time of birth and these arrangements/engagements are sacred and not to be broken in any case. These become the matter of ‘ghairat’ at times, leading to never ending enmity between tribes and families.

Main reasons mentioned include poverty, societal insecurities in case of girls, making young children responsible, religious pressures, family pressures, at times for money or land. Only one group mentioned Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

22

watta – satta as the reason for early marriages. Early marriages for girls are also considered as religious and social obligation and fulfilling this obligation as early as possible is considered as parents duty to their daughters, no matter whatever problems these obligations bring for the poor girls in future.

Figure 16 : Child Marriages 100%

56.7

Sanghar 36.7

69.2

Muzaffargarh 52.8

90% 80% 70% 60%

42.0

50%

38.1

31.0

40% 30%

26.0

To ensure access of deserving children and their families to the available resources and services at the district level, a Child Protection Unit (CPU) was established under the Social Welfare department in districts Muzaffargarh and Sanghar. Child Protection Unit plays the role of a coordinating body to improve the linkage between services providers.

Since May 2012 to 31st August 2013 Identified/ Reported cases

12327

Resolved

6353

Follow up

5974

Education

1242

Health

4639

Child protection issues

2260

Birth Registration

4186

20%

21.2

10%

12.2

Sangar Boys

4.6

Sangar Girls

8.9

Muzaffargarh Boys Muzaffargarh Girls

A progressive entrepreneur SUCCESS STORY

Ali Hassan is a 10 years old boy who lives in a small village of Mian Union Council of District Sanghar. He works at a Samosa and Pakora shop to earn money for the family. His father Muhammad Saleh died 4 years ago and his mother is an embroidery worker.

Ali has five sisters and five brothers. His elder brother aged 30 lives separately with his wife who does not contribute income in the house.

His second elder brother Muhammad Ali has been mentally sick after his wife left him and became a drug abuser. His third elder brother died due to hepatitis. His fourth elder brother Imam Ali works at the same shop. Imam Ali earns 300 rupees a day while Ali earns 80 rupees a day. His 3 sisters have gone through failed marriages and have are back in the house.

The failure is a result of watta satta (exchanging

23

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

brides between two families). One of the sisters was pregnant when she came back from her husband’s house.

Ali’s other two sisters Rehmat and Samina lived in their house with their husbands. Rehmat’s husbands collect funds for the local mosque and Samina’s husband is an unskilled labourer who works in a mill where he earns very little.

Ali Hassan’s employer is thinking of firing him from the job because an old and experienced worker is coming back to join the shop. The situation is not looking favorable for Ali who is likely to become vulnerable if fired.

Ali’s school going age is passing quickly while working at the shop, going through psychological pressures from his employer, and earning a living for the family at the same time.

Ali wishes to open his own samosa and pakora shop with his brother but the cost involved is high and cannot be arranged any time soon.

Becoming a quack can ensure wealth Bilal earns 30 rupees a day out of which he contributes 20 rupees to his home and keeps the remaining 10 rupees for himself.

Bilal never went to school and his school going age is quickly passing by while working at a medical store. Poverty in the family has been a major bottleneck in these circumstances.

SUCCESS STORY

At the age of 11, Bilal Ahmed works at a medical store. He lives in Chak 4 of Union Council Kadwari in district Sanghar. His father Shabir Ahmed is an unskilled labourer who is unemployed on regular basis. Bilal has 5 brothers and 3 sisters.

His one brother is a rickshaw driver and another works as a car washer. His mother along with his 2 unmarried sisters Mariam and Saira work in the cotton fields. They earn 7000 to 8000 rupees a season, which averages at less than 1000 per month.

He likes to playing cricket but seldom gets a chance as most of his day is spent at the medical store. Interestingly, Bilal idealizes the village quack who earns about 1000 rupees a day and wants to be a quack in future to change the economic condition of his family and upgrade their standard of living.

Own tyre shop to fulfill needs of a bride

Earlier he worked at a truck auto shop where the working hours were very long until 2:00 am.

Nasir is engaged to his cousin Phori who is 10 years old. His willingness for this arrangement was not sought when he was engaged to his cousin Phori.

Nasir has never gone to school. He believes that after getting education one can only become a teacher. His community and family do not have a trend of sending their children to school.

Nasir earns a daily wage of 30 rupees which he claims for himself. He has saved 200 rupees so far.

SUCCESS STORY

9 years old, Nasir works at a tyre shop for the last 2 years. He lives in Makrani Colony in Kipro city of District Sanghar.

His father Dost Ali drives a donkey cart to earn living for his family. His mother Raani sews clothes to help her husband in family earning. He has two sisters who help their mother in sewing.

He loves to play cricket and golipilla (marbles game) but the long working hours do not allow him to play. On holiday he helps his father in work.

He wants to be a garage owner so that he can earn enough money to support his family and increase their living standards but the vicious circle of poverty makes his wish cry for the moon.

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

24

RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION Article 12 of the CRC reads: “States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child” The concept of child participation is relatively new for the communities of two targeted districts where the duty bearers (government officials, elected representatives, etc.) holding high power have less interest for the cause of right holders (children). Even existing culture and practices followed by the parents and elders of the families revolves around “Authority” or “Dominance”. They are reluctant to encourage children for their voices and consultations in the affairs that have direct impact of their lives and careers.

The situation becomes worse when the child belongs to a vulnerable group i.e. orphans, girls, disabled, etc.

The focus group discussions at the community level revealed that orphans, destitute, and disabled children face problems in continuing their education not only due to lack of finances, but also due to the social attitude of parents and teachers towards such children in the schools. In order to break the bearers of social exclusion of such groups, there is need to build the capacities of local communities, school councils, teachers, local elected representative and children of the schools.

The rationale behind school management committees in the education sector is driven with involvement of local communities in the decisions of the

schools. These committees do not have appropriate representation of children thus excluding them from the process, which has direct implications on their lives and careers. Similarly, the health committees functional at the community level through LHWs have poor representation of children.

Children do not play any role in selection of work or payment of their work.This is decided between parents and employer and parents take the remuneration.

Some young boys know about their wages. Parents take remuneration for their work directly from their employers. Children involve in labor often get meager pay because they are untrained or unskilled, they take long time to complete the task etc. Parents and employers decide and agree upon the payments and children are not involved in this decision-making.

Young boys know how much is paid to their parents for their work. For young girls working as domestic maids, the remuneration is often in the form of food, clothes and shelter. Skilled young boys often negotiate their remuneration with the employer and they are more aware on the market rates for their work.

The project has facilitated the formation of two civil society groups of children/youths to raise their voices and concerns for their rights and issues. The purpose of this initiative is enabling children to understand the meaning of participation but equally bringing innovation in the emerging democratic culture of Pakistan. The project has been working to establish respective district assemblies for the children so these children could learn but also inform the decision makers about their issues and concerns.

Sharing the load of the family SUCCESS STORY

25

Shahid Abbas is a 14 years old orphan child. His father died 2 years ago.

He lives in Muhallah Talib Shah of Union Council in Khanpur District Muzaffargarh.

Despite having so much social and economic problems, he continued his education and enrolled in the Government High School Khanpur Baghasher (9thGrade). He has 3 brothers and 5 sisters of which 4 are married. Shahid’s mother works in a mill to earn bread and butter for the family.

His mother’s daily income is 300 rupees a day but she does not get work every day, but still

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

manages to make 4,500 rupees per month.

Shahid’s family is so poor that they buy food on daily basis as they do not have enough money to buyitems on weekly basis. Shahid tries to share his mother’s burden in earning money but not at the expense of his studies. He worked in a dispensary in summer vacations but was unable to make much from it.

He wants to become a police officer after getting education to serve his family, community and country. His eyes are bright and he is enthusiastic to complete his education in any circumstances regardless of facing difficult challenges in life.

CAUSAL ANALYSIS SELECTED AREA Child Health Care

EFFECT Poor maternal and child health Poor immunization Acute respiratory infections Diarrhea Measles High maternal mortality and infant mortality rate Poor sanitation services Under weight

IMMEDIATE CAUSES

UNDERLYING CAUSES

Non-availability of trained human resources at the primary level

Refusal for immunization due to religious and cultural propagandas

Unhygienic practices of open defecation

Less willingness for deliveries in health facilities

Poor service delivery i.e. low attendance in government institutes.

Poor communities cannot afford the heath services, and travel costs increased with current inflation

Low nutritional uptake by mothers and children

Open defecation is a local norm Poor accountability at the local level Voices of the poor are not included in decision making

SELECTED AREA Education

EFFECT Poor Quality Education Low net enrolment rate; girls are more marginalized Poor literacy; women are more marginalized Female teachers ratio is very low Half of the enrolled complete primary education

IMMEDIATE CAUSES

UNDERLYING CAUSES

Low number of female teachers per school in rural areas

Local communities with fears of security and cultural practices do not encourage girlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education

Poor infrastructure of the school including water and sanitation Political interventions in job placement and transfers Attitude of teachers especially towards vulnerable groups Fee in schools is charged on the name of different activities

Many families cannot afford to send children to schools because of poverty The communities do not conduct accountability of teachers Poor knowledge of teachers regarding child rights Lack of parents participation and knowledge about education Lack of political commitment at the local level

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

26

SELECTED AREA Child Protection

EFFECT Poor Child Protection Outcomes Low birth registration Child labour Early marriages Child abuse Violence against women Poor accountability of duty bearers

IMMEDIATE CAUSES

UNDERLYING CAUSES

Lack of awareness in communities about birth registration process

Poor child protection because of poverty though income increased but not matching with inflation

High child labour 12-14 years age group of children Gambling and drugs are more common causes of child delinquency behavior Cases not reported because of poor legal aid system Violence against women and children with poor reporting

Early marriages are done to shift over the responsibilities Additional income with child and bonded labour Difficult for the communities to understand the implication and meaning of good education when it is not linked with income benefits Poor education of women, and cultural taboos make women vulnerable

SELECTED AREA Participation and Emergencies

EFFECT Vulnerable Communities to Climate Change Vulnerability index of Pakistan especially Muzaffargarh and Sanghar very high Repetitive disasters/ emergencies at both places including epidemics

IMMEDIATE CAUSES

UNDERLYING CAUSES

Children, women, elderly and disabled population is vulnerable to natural disasters

Lack of awareness among communities about disaster risk reduction and management

Lack of adaptive capacities and resources in the government and civil society sector

Systematic capacity development and contingency planning not visible at sub districts and community levels

Disaster risk reduction and climate change is not being realized in the current policies and practices

DRR is not integrated in the school curriculum across the districts so few trainings happened at some places Early warning and community preparedness is very weak Training of health professionals not meant to understand the complexities of climate change

27

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

POWER RELATIONS AND RISK Power Relations Between Rights Holders and Duty Bearers The management of relationships with different and multi-stakeholders is key factor in the effective implementation of CRC especially among the rights holders and duty bearers. The findings of the data collected by CRAN members, focus group discussions and interviews of different stakeholders along the secondary data of the districts and provinces, the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders are summarized in the annexure.

Figure 17 : Duty Bearers and Rights Holders

High

Secondary Duty Bearers

Primary Duty Bearers

Power

Low

Secondary Right Holders

Low

Primary Rights Holders

Interest

High

The above matrix (Fig 19) clearly shows that Primary Duty Bearers in both districts possess high power, and have low interest in realization of child rights e.g.

Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan to provide fee education to all children is not implemented, high incidences of child labour, etc. Similarly, secondary rights holders have power but low interest than primary rights holders by virtue of their control on their living.

Moreover, the parents and community groups, as secondary rights holders, do not challenge the child protection issues even in their own jurisdiction like child labour, domestic violence, etc.

The children and youth as primary rights holders have high interest but have low power and influence.

They are vulnerable due to limited knowledge, poor orientation, restricted collective actions and dependency on secondary rights holders who are generally not willing to extend their support in the traditional culture e.g. in case of Pakistan where sexual reproductive health education is not provided at the appropriate time, decision about career is influenced by families etc. The secondary duty bearers are in a better position having high interest in realization of child rights and enjoy more power by virtue of their liberty, commitment with cause of CRC and affiliation with international bodies.

In summary, there is need to strengthen the capacities of secondary rights holders by mobilizing and organizing them into community groups. Thus, empowering them to realize the rights of children by providing the necessary enabling environment and support to primary rights holders, and ensuring the accountability of primary duty bearers by effective advocacy and lobbying.

Factors Affecting Realization of Children Rights Social Risk Assessment - A new conceptual framework for Social Protection and Beyond- developed by Robert Holzmann and Steer Jorgenseen has been used to find out structural causes about non-realization of rights. The analysis using this tool is summarized in the matrix ahead.

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

28

SOURCE / EFFECT ON CHILD RISK

LEVEL OF RISK MICRO (Idiosyncratic)

MESO

MACRO (Covariate)

Natural

Non resilient infrastructure

River side displacement with floods

Flood Drought Spell High Rainfalls

Health

Diarrhoea

Under Nutrition Status

Child survival and development

Lifestyle

Underweight Births

Poor intake of foods

Food security

Social

Forced marriages by ‘Wanni’, ‘Watta Satta’ Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuses

Women and families hesitate to practice family planning and children education

Poor sexual reproductive health education Teachers ratio and capacities

Economic

Low assets holding Money lending with high interest

Unemployment

High inflation Low savings

Environment

Change in cropping patterns

Fluctuations in rains and heat waves

High vulnerable zone of climate change in Pakistan

Governance

Patriarchy approach- less voice of women and children in family decisions

Local Panchyat system with poor voices of children and women Local bodies election not held

Absence of Child protection Bill Weak Accountability Poor capabilities on the part of duty bearers

• Low net enrollment in schools • Early marriages- more child bearing years • Child and domestic labour • Child Delinquency Behaviors • Poverty • Food security • Sexual abuse and susceptibility to STDs

• • • •

• Loss of Asset and destruction of infrastructure • Poor Food security • Poor child survival and development • Poor Purchasing power • Civic violence

Effect on Child Rights Effects

29

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

Poor crop yield High population growth rate Poor participation Unproductive youth groups

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS POLICY AND LEGISLATION With successful transition of 18th amendment in Pakistan and new government in both provinces, there is an opportunity for creating a momentum for proactive advocacy campaigns for legislation and realization of child rights. The 18th constitutional resulted in confusion to the extent that provincial legislatures undertake legislation upon child welfare matters without paying heed to the minimum rights guaranteed in the UNCRC. In absence of any federally determined minimum rights, it is likely that rights provided to the children across the provinces and districts vary and consequently raise a number of questions with regard to the guarantee of equality under Article 25 of the constitution. Similarly, there are capacity gaps to the child protection institute and cells working in both provinces to understand CRC framework and standards.

Recommendation The stakeholders should work with elected representatives to create political will for effective legislation and realization of child rights. The petitions signed by the local communities through CRAN members should be submitted to elected representative and relevant ministries at national and provincial levels. Child Protection institutes should be engaged to identify their capacity needs, and facilitate them in applying a comprehensive framework for child protection, developing minimum standards and then cascading those standards to relevant departments.

HEALTH Heath data from both districts showed poor provision and access to MNCH services, which is endorsed by high maternal, and infant mortality rates along with poor immunization, acute respiratory infections and under weight births. Apparently, the communities are less interested in safe deliveries at health facilities and construction of latrines to end open defecations. The data revealed that communities were more inclined towards private health service providers. The religious and cultural practices are used as protective covers for not adopting health and safety practices especially related to immunization, appropriate sanitation, etc.

lobbying and advocacy with health department to ensure appropriate immunization, the CRAN members should be trained in health hygiene to cascade the knowledge across the districts.

EDUCATION There is visible increase in school facilities reported in both districts. On the other side, both districts are well below to the average enrollment and literacy rate of their respective provinces , and have been ranked under the category of low education index by Ail Alan of UKAID advocacy initiative The challenge of low number of female teachers continued to pose the challenge of low enrollment of girls and even quality of education. The local political leadership is not well geared toward education rights and article 25-A of constitution of Pakistan along with appropriate accountability, of duty bearers. Many parents are not able understand the benefits of sending their children to schools for education in their livelihood.

Recommendation Engagement with local political leadership is critical for gearing up the accountability of education department to ensure enrollment, deployment of appropriate number of teachers in schools and engagement with parents to understand the benefits of education beyond income.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Majority of the children in both districts are not equipped with appropriate information and knowledge about changes expected from adolescence and are thus more susceptible to unhealthy practices and seeking guidance from traditional heath care providers.

Recommendation Stakeholders should work with secondary duty bearers to sensitize them about sexual reproductive health, and undertake consultation with communities on best possible means and methods to impart sexual reproductive health education to adolescents in line with cultural practices and norms of the local area.

Recommendation

CHILD PROTECTION

Stakeholders should cultivate on the success-increased immunization in Sanghar. In addition to effective

There is decline in the child marriages showing a good progress of project. Both districts are in need Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

30

of strengthening their child/birth registration and safety nets for affected children. High incidences of child delinquency behavior and violations are perhaps due to increased awareness and reporting done by the CRAN members, which reduced the fears and apprehension of the local communities. Child protection is not a priority for the district and local government as many of child protection issues like child labor, forced marriages, etc. are considered a part of existing cultural practices.

their knowledge about social safety nets and linkages with skill development programs.

Recommendation

Recommendation

In both districts, the CRAN should be supported in developing their databases and reporting of child protection cases while linkages development with line departments for coordination and facilitation of child rights.

Stakeholders should cascade their child focused DRR training program to CRAN members for developing disaster resilient communities.The selected volunteers of CRAN members should be trained in emergency and response from child needs perspective.

ADEQUATE STATE OF LIVING

PARTICIPATION

Though income increase is noted in both districts but inflationary pressure and subsequent disasters have reduced the coping capacities of local communities.

Many poor communities of both districts have no access to national safety net programs for reasons like lack of national identify cards, land rights, etc.

Overall, low participation of children in local development initiative is reported though SCF and its partners made a significant efforts to ensure effective and meaningful participation of children.

Recommendation

Stakeholders should focus on Active Citizenship program, asking the children groups to develop their own strategies for participation and raising voice with local elected representatives.

Stakeholders should continue their skill development but more importantly engage the CRAN members for

31

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES Both districts are prone to disasters especially to monsoon floods and rainfalls respectively. The communities started to have realize the impact of climate change but are not well prepared to act as disaster resilient communities.

Recommendation

ANNEXURE Stakeholders

Who they are

Roles and Responsibilities

Primary duty Bearers

The Government of Pakistan officials including judiciary The Provincial Governments of Punjab and Sindh â&#x20AC;&#x201C; officials including judiciary National, Provincial and Local Elected Representatives National, Provincial and Local Religious and Social Leaders

Realization about the rights of children in light of CRC Develop and support the a conducive legal and regulatory framework for CRC Facilitate the capacity development of duty bearer and rights holders Ensure the effective implementation of agreed actions and emphasize on mobilizing the resources needed for the implementation of the CRC Demonstrated actions for the cause of rights of children

Secondary Duty Bearers

Parents and Families Child Rights Organizations Local and National Civil Society Organizations Bilateral and Multilateral aid Agencies National, provincial and local media

Empower the rights holders through organizing and harnessing their potential to claim for their rights Monitor the primary duty bearer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; making them accountable and transparent in their processes for CRC Ensuring the commitment of primary duty bearers are linked with actions like budget allocation, approval of policies for CRC, etc.

Effective advocacy, lobbying and networking for the rights holders by placing emphasis on primary duty bearers to fulfil their commitment.

Primary Rights Holders

Children Adolescent Youth

Making theme aware of their rights and enabling them to know who are duty bearers at different levels Informing the structures and systems of duty bearer with their responsibilities and how these duty bearers should be approached for their needs and demands Organizing themselves and mobilize support for their rights through collective actions Acquire skills and knowledge to claim their rights through collective actions Acquire skills and knowledge to claim their rights, and know how to participate in the decisions that affect their lives.

Secondary Rights Holders

Parents Communities in which the children and youths live

In addition to the above; Women empowered for their rights, protection especially violence, etc.

Child Rights Situation Analysis Report

32

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