Children’s place in manifestos

FORMER prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf declared 2013 the year of the rights of the child in Pakistan on Nov 20, 2012 while speaking at a function to commemorate Universal Children’s Day. Unfortunately, however, his government couldn’t take any tangible steps in the first two and half months of 2013 except the last-minute approval of the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill 2013 by the National Assembly and the approval of the Criminal Law Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2013 by the federal cabinet in its last meeting.

The current year is also the year of elections in Pakistan and in the coming days and weeks we’ll be hearing political parties share their programmes and manifestos with the masses. This article has attempted to review the manifestos of Pakistan’s major political parties, specifically with reference to the rights of children to health and protection.

The PPP in its manifesto of 2008 referred more to what the party has done during earlier periods in power. While referring to health, the party declared it a high priority and committed that “it will further consolidate the Lady Health Workers Programme”.

The PTI highlighted “the present dismal state of women and children in terms of their access to healthcare, nutrition, and education”. The party plans to revamp and upgrade the public healthcare system in Pakistan in line with its slogan “healthy people, healthy nation” by putting in place reforms such as doubling state spending on health, achieving 100 per cent immunisation of children against preventable diseases, policy emphasis on preventive healthcare etc.

The PML-Q while referring to health commits to investment in hospitals to provide better treatment to patients and special incentives for doctors to serve in rural areas.

The PML-N while highlighting the importance of health made commitments to modernise main teaching hospitals both in the federal capital and provincial headquarters and equip these with state of the art medical equipment and facilities. The PML-N also committed to increase overall expenditure on health to 2% of the GDP, achieve 100% vaccination of children and 50% reduction in maternal and infant mortality by 2018.

The MQM committed to increase public expenditure on health from 0.6 per cent to five per cent of the GDP during the next five years. Interestingly, in its 2008 manifesto, the MQM had committed to increase it from 0.6 per cent to four per cent of the GDP and while drafting their manifesto for 2013 they were aware that it’s still at 0.6 per cent. The MQM further committed to ensure full coverage of the Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) and to establish hospitals in every district and healthcare centres in every village of the country. In its manifesto the MQM also committed for effective legislation against social ailments like gender discrimination, sexual harassment, domestic violence, child abuse, rape, honour killings, child marriage, karo kari, vani, marriage to the Quran, bonded labour and child labour. The party also committed to repeal all discriminatory laws against women and religious minorities.

The ANP committed it would strive to provide health facilities to all citizens. The party aimed to allocate at least six per cent of the GDP to health. It emphasised child and mother care, provision of clean drinking water and preventive medicine. ANP is the only political party that has included section on child rights in its manifesto and has vowed to review, legislate and implement child labour laws to ensure that child labour under the age of 16 years is prohibited in all formal and informal sectors including domestic sector. The ANP is committed to implementation of the Juvenile Justice System and will establish exclusive juvenile courts and introduce exclusive prisons with immense rehabilitation possibilities for the children. The ANP has also committed to make efforts to prohibit all forms of violence against children such as corporal punishment, sexual abuse, rape, kidnapping and ensuring punishment as per law.

The ANP also made commitments about bringing changes in FATA however, no child rights specific recommendation was made to ensure children of FATA equal rights without any discrimination as per the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international human rights instruments.

While reviewing the manifestos of political parties it was observed that the content of most of the manifestos has minor changes from the 2008 elections. It was also observed that most of the commitments made regarding the right to health are of a general nature and there has been little focus on large-scale health reforms linking this right with achieving our international commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Convention on the Rights of the Child and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights etc.

Similarly, except the PTI little attention has been paid to the prevention aspect highlighting areas like child and maternal health, infant and under-five mortality, immunisation and budgetary allocation.

The ANP and MQM have made specific recommendations related to budgetary allocation for health. However, one fails to understand what steps they took to increase budgetary allocation for health during their time in power.

According to the findings of the Draft National Nutrition Survey 2011, malnutrition has become a key concern for the country. Approximately 400,000 children die in Pakistan every year before their fifth birthday and 35 per cent of these deaths are attributed to malnutrition. However, none of the political parties have shared any vision about how they will address this important issue. Similarly, no specific agenda has been shared about what steps they would take to put Pakistan or their respective provinces on the right direction towards achieving the MDGs.

Health workers and immunisation are of immense importance towards achieving the MDGs. However, these important areas are not that visible on the agendas of political parties except the PPP and PTI, and that too without clear objectives and strategies.

It has emerged from the review of the manifestos that except ANP child protection is of no interest to any political party, except some highlights in the manifesto of the MQM without any solid plan about addressing the issues.

 

I need not remind anyone that millions of children are working as child labourers in Pakistan, including as part of the child domestic labour force, particularly in the homes of elites including politicians, while the number of children living and or working on the streets is increasing. Child marriage is still common, corporal punishment is widespread, internal trafficking of children, the use of children as child soldiers and suicide bombers and a poor criminal justice system for children are also some of the issues faced by minors.

The political parties in Pakistan need to come up with firm commitments about child rights, particularly children’s right to health and protection. Focus should be on areas which can bring solid changes in key indicators like child and maternal mortality, vaccination ratio, nutrition indicators, health workers’ coverage, protection of children from abuse, exploitation and violence against children, and above all policy, legislation and budgetary allocation for children.

The writer is a child rights activist. Twitter: @amahmood72

Published in Daily Dawn on April 9, 2013 http://dawn.com/2013/04/09/more-of-the-same-6/