Government of Pakistan firmly believes it and seriously acknowledged the fact that it is a state responsibility to protect the children and the state will take every possible initiative to fulfil its responsibilities. Pakistan signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child in 1989 and ratified it in 1990. In 2010, after 18th amendment in the constitution of Pakistan; the responsibilities to protect the rights of the child were further delegated to Provincial Governments and the Government of Sindh fulfilled its commitment by making the law called “Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011” to facilitate the cases of abuse and violence with children. Under this Act, initially, three (03) Child Protection Units (CPUs) were established in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur; however, the number of CPUs was gradually increased and Twelve (15) Child Protection Units were established and fully operationalized in 2014-2015 with the collaboration of Social Welfare Department, UNICEF and other International and National Non-Governmental Organizations. In 2016, the Rules of Business (ROBs) of the Sindh Child Protection Authority was developed and in 2017, the Sindh Child Protection Authority was fully operationalized by establishing Child Protection Units (CPUs) in all the Twenty-Nine (29) districts of Sindh. In 2018, Government of Sindh took another step to work more for children of the province by making District Coordination Committee (DCC) for Child Protection on district level under the supervision of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the respective districts, the committee consist of stakeholders from Governmental and Non-Governmental institution has been made to discuss the child protection situation in the province monthly. Further, among many services; the authority is working on some basic and essential features to strengthen the Child Protection System in the province: For the prevention and reporting of the case, the Sindh Child Protection Authority is running a Helpline Called “Sindh Child Helpline”, which is 24/7 available and people seeking help from all the districts of Sindh can call it. Case Management and Referral of the cases to connect the survivor with different service providers. Development of Management Information System for record-keeping of Child Protection cases, the Authority is also planning to work further on the system so that the Data Base will be available to the public to follow the progress on the cases in future.

• Karachi Malir