Thursday 18 October 2012

State of children’s rights deteriorating in Punjab

Situation of children’s rights in Punjab is deteriorating due to “extremely low” budgetary allocations for children’s education and health in the provincial budget, said speakers at a seminar ‘Resources Alliances for Children’.

“Budget allocations for education, health and social welfare in the fiscal year 2012-2013 have decreased from those of 2011-2012. Budget allocation for education has been reduced from 5.96 percent to 4.94 percent, health 4.8 percent to 4.57 percent and social welfare 0.64 to 0.51 percent,” participants were told at the seminar organised by Child Rights Movement Punjab (CRMP) and Social Welfare Department in collaboration with Save the Children on Wednesday.

Senior journalist Iftikhar Ahmed said that resources are generated through a proper tax system which, according to him, is “dysfunctional and ineffective” in Pakistan.

“To make our state stable, we will have to devise a proper and regular tax payment system,” he said, adding that the Punjab government is “not serious” about welfare of children.

Save the Children Program Manager Wajahat Ali Farooq said the situation of “child focused health expenditures is quiet dismal because such expenditures have shown a decrease of almost 100 percent”.

CRMP Representative Iftikhar Mubarik said the Punjab government should increase its development budget to ensure provision of services and resolve issues facing children across the province.

He also said that the budget analysis presented at the event should be shared with parliamentarians to ensure that budgetary allocations are increased in the future.

“The government should allocate more budget for the promotion and protection of children’s rights.”

Social Welfare and Women Development Department Director General Malik Muhammad Aslam pledged to work for “good governance” by making more budgetary allocations for social and welfare needs of children.

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