PAKISTAN is unkind to its children. The NCRC’s State of Children in Pakistan Report 2024 scans the grim circumstances our young are forced to navigate, and spells out the systemic apathy towards their safety, health and progress. It asserts that the country faces tremendous difficulties in safeguarding the rights of 112m children — 40pc of the population — with inconsistencies in health and education: over 26m children between five to 16 years of age are out of school amid a ‘learning crisis’, and one in two among under-five-year-olds is malnourished, while child protection is in a shambles. The first half of 2024 saw 862 reported cases of child abuse, 668 cases of abduction, 82 incidents of missing children, 18 cases of child marriage, and 48 of pornography after sexual abuse.

Every alarm bell seems to falls on deaf ears as the state ignores the entrenched malady that needs urgent and aggressive treatment. Pakistan’s extended lassitude exists despite the fact that it is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Article 25-A of the Constitution, which declares that the state is duty-bound to provide free and compulsory education to children aged five and 16. A society that cannot guarantee child rights facilitates large-scale childhood trauma and deprivation, which turns into permanent vulnerability to mental health issues, stress, violence, drug abuse and more, shaping individuals who are unable to adjust their emotional responses to people and circumstances. In short, the socioeconomic cost of neglected children and exploitation is disastrous. As statutes and conventions remain lifeless, successive governments have not felt compelled to keep pace with the scale of the problem. The government must demonstrate more responsibility by adopting certain recommendations in the report — “investing in early childhood development, strengthening child protection systems, and ensuring education and healthcare services”. A child’s safety, progress and agency are not optional.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2025