The Sindh High Court (SHC) has taken exception to the lack of Sindh Child Protection Authority (SCPA) protocols to determine if a child requires special protection, and directed the SCPA chief to submit a detailed response.
The court had earlier noticed in a matter regarding child protection in the province that children being rescued from beggary were being returned to their parents’ custodies without assessing if they needed special protection.
An SHC division bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh and Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed said the SCPA director general was unable to properly assist the court as regards the child protection protocols, if any, maintained by them, raising doubts about the authority’s proper functioning.
The bench said education, social welfare and child protection are paramount for society’s proper development, and it is necessary that only the most capable and dedicated officers be appointed to head the relevant institutions.
The court directed the SCPA DG to provide on the next date of hearing proper assistance and information with regard to the protections protocols for children rescued from beggary.
The DG said protocols have been devised and further proposed amendments to the SCPA (Amendment) Rules have been sent to the law department for vetting.
He said that after the incorporation of the rules, child protection officers will be duty bound to make an assessment before returning a rescued child to their parents’ custody.
Regarding the attendance of schoolteachers in seven districts of the province through the relevant app, the court expressed dismay that the document produced by the IT department showed 12,422 teachers as present and 16,324 as absent, saying that such figures were alarming.
The education secretary said that an anomaly had arisen due to non-adherence on the part of the teachers in the relevant districts as regards signing into the app for their attendance.
The court said that the statement was scarcely a proper explanation, adding that adherence on the part of the teachers ought to have been ensured, and in the event of non-compliance, proper action ought to have been initiated.
The bench pointed out a serious gap in the system, as the district-wise position ought to have been available pictorially on the dashboard for ready reference.
The court said the IT secretary had submitted that the app would also be made functional so as to track the attendance history and create relevant alerts in the event of delinquency.
Regarding child protection, the social welfare secretary said that six orphanages were being run by the Edhi Foundation, with only the Edhi Child Home falling under the control of the Sindh Darul Atfal (Supervision & Control) Act, 1976.
He said that its registration is under way, while the other five facilities are shown by the Edhi Foundation as temporary shelter homes rather than Darul Atfals, so their registration is being resisted and has not taken place.
He undertook that the matter would be properly looked into and addressed in accordance with the law. The court directed the authorities concerned to submit their respective progress report on March 20 in compliance with the court’s orders.
The court had earlier directed the chief secretary to submit concrete and definite proposals for ensuring that children of school-going age who were not enrolled or attending schools were brought into the school system, and ensuring the implementation of the Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act and the SCPA Act.
The education department had informed the court that 4,351,148 students (2,694,245 boys and 1,656,903 girls) were enrolled at 40,796 public schools of the province, while 3,044,260 were enrolled at private institutions.
The education department had submitted that 44,219 schools had been established in different districts on the basis of requirements of specific areas, 6,407 schools were without shelter, and the department had also notified a policy for the schools without shelter.
The education department had also told the court that according to the data received from the home department, 649,044 students were currently enrolled at different madrasas.
Rights activists and organisations had filed petitions seeking the implementation of the 2013 law that made it incumbent on the government to ensure free and compulsory education of children from the age of five to 16 years old.
They also sought the implementation of the SCPA Act and the orphanages law. They said that the city had thousands of street children, while several of them were being used in crimes, begging and other anti-social activities.
