The child protection Punjab chairperson has told the public that schooling, safety and a fair chance for girls are a duty shared by everyone. Sarah Ahmad, chairperson of the Punjab Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB), the Punjab body named for child protection and welfare, spoke on Sunday in a special message for the International Day of the Girl Child, observed on October 11. According to The Nation, she asked for a safe setting, decent schooling and equal chances for every girl.
What Sarah Ahmad asked of homes and classrooms
Ahmad said empowerment, a proper upbringing, protection and education for girls had to be carried by society together, not by a single office. She said every girl should be able to speak up, choose for herself and follow her hopes with confidence and dignity. She called girls the nation's future and said keeping them safe was work for the whole community. A safe place to grow, quality education and the same opportunities as others, she added, were required for a more secure and prosperous future.
Taken together, her points put weight on adults at home and in school as well as on the girl who speaks and decides. The appeal, as The Nation reported it, was addressed as much to parents and teachers as to girls themselves.
Early marriage and newborn girls left abandoned
The chairperson voiced concern about incidents in which newborn girls are abandoned. Respect, protection, education and a better future, she said, were due to every girl.
She named early marriage as a major obstacle both to girls' schooling and to that brighter future. For child protection Punjab, she described legislation against child marriage as an important step in defending girls' rights. She said the aim should be to strengthen girls, not to leave them without a place in school. On girls' education rights in Pakistan, her test was plain: a girl should stay in school, and early marriage should not close that door.
Digital safety, and her words to girls
Ahmad said girls need a clear understanding of digital security if they are to be protected from threats online. She asked parents and teachers to explain the risks and to show girls how to look after themselves on the internet. She told girls to hold on to hope, meet hard moments with courage, and keep working towards the dreams they set for themselves.
The message was reported from Lahore. As published by The Nation, it carried no figures on abandoned infants, child marriage or online harm, and it named no new scheme. What it set down was a public standard: safety, schooling and an equal chance, with families and teachers asked to act on early marriage and on life online.
