Awareness, education necessary to fight child abuse: Bilawal

Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that awareness and education are very important to fight the menace of child abuse, Geo News reported on Monday.

“We cannot fight child abuse if our children don’t know how to protect themselves,” he said while addressing a press conference in Karachi on Monday.

Bilawal stated that the Sindh government was making all-out efforts to adopt life skills-based education in the curriculum across the province. “All political parties should be on the same page pertaining to child rights.”

The PPP leader said the life skills-based education curriculum had been adopted at Fatima Jinnah Government School and it showed positive results. He added that the provincial government hoped to implement a similar curriculum in 200 schools across the province.

The children should know how to protect themselves, their health, their body and going to relevant authorities, he said. On the Kasur incident, Bilawal said that “previously people were scared to speak [about child abuse] but now people are scared of not speaking out”.

When asked about the necessity of punishment in child abuse cases, he remarked that punishment was necessary but it would not bring about any change till there was education and awareness.

“We want an accountable police force. Police should be apolitical but checks and balances are necessary as well.” Bilawal was flanked by social activist and singer Shehzad Roy, who hailed the efforts by the Sindh government to raise awareness about child abuse among school-going children.