Girls face bias, lack of opportunities

Islamabad : According to the number of children been enrolled in schools all over Pakistan, 56 per cent of them are boys whereas 44 per cent are girls. The comparison clearly represents the bias, lack of opportunities and unequal treatment that girls face throughout the country at social level.

In this regard, Society for Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) observed International Girl Child Day. October 11, marks International Girl Child Day which aims to highlight the challenges being faced by girls and to expand the opportunities already existing or being provided to them. SPARC organised an event to involve students from different schools in the activity. Almost 30 children from SPARC’s Centre for Street Children in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Saya School and Islamabad International School took part in the activity.

The event started by drawing attention to the rights that a girl-child possesses and the factors that create hurdles in their acquisition. It is quite evident that in a developing country like Pakistan, females lack equal rights in social, economic and political spaces. They’ve been left poor, illiterate, malnourished and underprivileged. Many young girls are a victim of labour or early and forced marriages while others face violence and abuse.

Children were told that in Pakistan, almost 21 per cent girls are married off before the age of 18, as reported by UNICEF. This can be due to financial constraints or cultural practices but usually this leads to compromise in their learning and education. The victims of early marriage become prone to diseases and infections and are more vulnerable to be weak. Not only this but also among the 3445 children reported to be abused in the year 2017, 1368 victims were boys and around 2077 were the cases of girls, according to Sahil’s Cruel Report statistics.

After familiarizing children with the current state of girls all over Pakistan and the miseries being faced by them, children were encouraged to provide solutions that they feel should be adopted at social level especially by themselves to make the situation better at national level.