The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) on Thursday organised a comprehensive training session for the probation and parole staff and other relevant government officials for providing support to young people in prisons and under probation in Sindh.
Speaking to the participants, Dr Muhammad Usman Chachar, the Sindh home department additional chief secretary, said the provincial government had been taking proactive steps to improve the criminal justice system and implement the laws.
“It is highly appreciable that the need is being realised for capacity building of probation staff and other linked departments to improve support for youth in conflict with law,” he said. Abdul Kabir Kazi, the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) managing director, said the provincial government was committed to uplifting and empowering the youth.
“It is manifested by the formal implementation of the Youth Education Employment Empowerment Project (YEEEP) to educate, train, employ, and empower 15,000 youths in the province,” he said.
Special Assistant to the Sindh CM Syed Riaz Hussain Shah said the idea behind many such projects was to enhance the opportunities of earning decent and respectful livelihood for the prisoners upon release. “To mainstream this marginalised segment of society, it is important to empower them through enhanced skills and improved behaviour,” he added.
Shumaila Muzammil, the SPARC project manager, said the child rights body had joined hands with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the SEF, to contribute to YEEEP, a joint initiative of the government of Sindh and the UNDP Pakistan that aimed at creating a facilitating environment for youth to emerge as agents of positive change and development.
Moin Zaidi of the UNDP Pakistan said, “The UNDP has partnered with SPARC to train around 50 young men and women who are either in the prisons or on the probation period on various vocational and technical skills; they are also being provided psychological counselling.”
Muhammad Kashif Mirza, the SPARC advocacy manager, explained that under the YEEEP, SPARC, with the support of the UNDP and the SEF, was implementing a project for the social and economic reintegration and rehabilitation of young prisoners in selected prisons of Karachi —District Prison Malir and Central Prison for Women.
He added that the intervention included skill training and psychological counseling for the young prisoners. “SPARC is also organising consultations with key stakeholders to advocate the sustenance of rehabilitation and reintegration measures for the beneficiaries of the project,” he stated.
Sharing statistics, Mirza said there were approximately 9,640 prisoners in four prisons of Karachi, of whom 4,218 were incarcerated in the Karachi Central Jail, 5,152 in the District Prison and Correctional Facility Malir, 134 in the Women Prison and 136 in the Youthful Offenders' Industrial School Karachi.
He added that a majority of this population comprised under-trial prisoners (80.7%) who included those detained under minor and bailable offences but had to wait due to long and slow nature of the trial system in Pakistan for release.
The training event covered all legal aspects of the probation department as well as the roles and responsibilities of the probation officials.