Countering child abuse

The rapid growth of child abuse in our country has made parents afraid to send their children even to schools after these all cases of children being kidnapped, raped and killed. Farishta’s case is not the first one in our society. There have been many such cases. But after these all what have we done to stop this crime? As parents do we really educate our children about ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’?

The government too only takes action when the damage is already done. Why don’t our governments plan and come up with a policy to counter this crime? Aren’t we able to teach our children in school about child abuse and how to protect themselves when a stranger is trying to touch them? It won’t take much effort to make this a part of regular curriculum. But we are never visionary as for as the people’s rights are concerned. Why don’t we run an awareness campaign in every city and village of our country to make the people aware? Such an awareness campaign can very beneficial. We as a nation can do a lot of things to counter child abuse, but we only wake up after every such case and then again go into a deep slumber.

Minah Munir

Karachi