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EcoChic Magazine supports Plan’s Global Advocacy Campaign

EcoChic Magazine supports Plan’s Global Advocacy Campaign

 

by Deborah Miarkowska

Plan is calling for urgent action to ensure Pakistan’s children receive greater protection as nearly 3,000 children a year are going missing in Pakistan, a new study by Plan reveals.Yet the total number may be far higher as many disappearances, including runaways, abductions and trafficking victims, go unreported. “The exact causes, number and types of missing children who are abducted, kidnapped or killed for ransom are not known,” says advocacy co-ordinator for Plan in Pakistan, Safdar Raza.

“But the problem of missing children continues to grow, exacerbating the weaknesses of Pakistan’s child protection system.”

Kidnapping increase

ap-pakistan-swat-valley-children-displaced-210_0The study shows that 4,300 children have gone missing from Pakistan’s major cities in the last 18 months alone. It says kidnappings are on the rise against a backdrop of a country suffering from major security issues and natural disasters.

The vast majority of those children reported missing were boys but only because a perceived ‘loss of honour’ often prevents families from reporting missing girls.

Many never found

Missing children range in age from 5 to 16 years old and while some return home, many are never found.

Reasons for their disappearance also vary - from runaways escaping abuse or poverty; to children snatched to be sold into child labour or the sex trade; or kidnapped for ransom.

Police training

Families of missing children often experience a lack of cooperation from the police who downplay their claims. The precise number of those still missing and for what reason is impossible to gauge in the absence of a nationwide database.

Plan has set up child protection training for Pakistan’s police force and is calling for measures including:

•a national database to log cases of missing children
•an awareness campaign to publicise threats
•education of children on how to minimise risks
•wider installation of equipment such as CCTV camera

Plan in Pakistan

 

Plan has been operating in Pakistan since 1997, helping marginalised children to access their rights to health, education, livelihood and protection. Plan works with around 100 communities across the country, benefiting about 21,000 children.

We have just launched Plan’s global advocacy campaign Learn Without Fear in Pakistan and are focusing on the issue of corporal punishment. We are working with the government and district education departments to help eliminate this practice from schools, so that we can encourage children to go to school and diminish the alarming dropout rate.

Find out more about Plan’s work in Pakistan HERE

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