LAHORE: Pakistan ratified the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1990 and since then attempts have been made to implement some parts of this convention but the overall picture is dismal.

The problem does not just lie in one sphere. In the health sector, for example, children suffer from the lack of access to nutritious foods, vaccination coverage against preventable diseases (set according to World Health Organisation standards) is not carried out properly and there is infant mortality which continues to be a major problem across the country, especiallyin ruralareas.

In the education sector, among other issues, thereis a high dropoutrate and a low enrollment rate. Crimes against children are widespread, and child sexual abuse as well as kidnapping and abduction can be easily carried out. Whateverthe reasons are, the problems of children inPakistan are presentinevery sector.

In orderto tackle theseissues,the government formed committees and launched projects to bring out solutions, and though the work is commendable, child rights activists as well as some of the government officials concur that one agency or commission should be established at the top level to continuously monitor the children`s issues and crime against them.

Currently, at the federal level, a bill for the National Commission for the Rights of the Child (NCRC) has been with the Standing Committee of Law, Justice and Human Rights.

Director General of the Federal Ministry of the Law Hasan Mangi explains the need of this bill at both the federaland the provinciallevels.

`Firstly, there is a huge international requirement that has prompted us to encourage this bill to be pushed into assembly,` he says. `However, it is stilllying with the Standing Committee and because these things take time, it is understandable that it will be a short spell before it is actually tabled.

Mr Mangi goes on to say that the UNCRC of 1990 urges Pakistan to establish such an umbrella committee which can overlook all the reports, issues and incidents all over the country. This commission then can send its official reports to international meetings instead of several different reports going there.

`The other big issue is that since the 18th Amendment, there is no nationwide agency overseeing the same issues. Every province is working differently, and if they come up with a mechanism, that is good but still every province will be different than the others in its mechanism.

Likewise, a women`s commission has been formed under Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of DiscriminationagainstWomen(CEDAW) to address nationwide issues of women.

Iftikhar Mubarik, a child rights` activ-ist, says that it was strange why the government is not rushing to solve children`s issues.

`It has been a year since the Punjab government promised to ensure such a commission at the provincial level, and all such people working with children`s needs are wondering what the government has done in one year`s time.

A Punjab Steering Committee was also formed a year ago whose first and last meeting was held in July 2014. But a member of the committee says that its function was overlapping with another commission, headed by Rana Sanullah, so it was abandoned.

`The unfortunate status is that there is a little conflict we are facing at the provincial level,` says the member. `The government and the activists are on the same page but Unicef does want something a little different than a Child Rights Commission; it is looking for something on the line of a Child Protection Commission.

If the federal model is to be replicated,it should be child rights commission which can look after every matter, not just protection issues, says the member.

But the commission has not been fully established at the federal level either and, Mubarik, says that one of the many reasons for having a federal commission first is that the only international presence in every meeting and convention is that of the government of Pakistan, not the provincial governments.

He cites increasing incidents of domestic violence, or abuse, child marriages and other issues and says that although the Punjab Child Protection Bureau is doing a commendable job, it is still only limited to violence. Meanwhile, the monitoring agency would not be making any operations. It would only be an overseeing body uniting all others.

`The sooner this is done at both levels, the better because after all it is the children who are suffering and it is for them that this body should be established,` he says.