Presentation by Child Rights Committee Pakistan Pediatric Association as a Webinar on 14th June 2020

1. Covid-19
and Child Protection
Child Rights Group
Pakistan Pediatric Association

2. Presentation
Overview
Moderator:
Dr. Mumtaz Lakhani
(Secretary General, PPA -Center)
• General impact of Pandemic on Children
Dr. Tufail Muhammad Chair CRC-PPA and President ISPCAN
• What needs to be done to protect children (based
on PPA Policy Brief)
Prof. Aisha Mehnaz Focal Person CRC-PPA and Chairperson Konpal
• UNICEF Perspectives of Child Protection during
COVID-19
Ms. Micaela Pasini Head Child Protection Program UNICEF Pak
• Cybercrimes during lockdown
Dr. Kishwar Enam Agha Khan University
• Parent's role in Child Protection during COVID-19
Dr. Naeem Zafar Convener CRC-PPA, President PAHCHAAN
• Questions and Answers
• Concluding Remarks
Prof. Gohar Rehman (President, PPA)

3. General impact of Pandemic on
Children
Dr. Tufail Muhammad Chair CRC-PPA
and President ISPCAN

4. The
Dynamics of
a Pandemic
• Global disease outbreak
• Compared to an outbreak or epidemic a Pandemic
• Affects a wider geographical area, often worldwide
• Is often caused by a new virus or strain of virus, is
wider in scope because human have no or very low
immunity against it
• Spreads quickly from person to person
• Causes much higher number of deaths than
epidemics: and
• Creates social disruptions, economic loss and
general hardship
• Overwhelmed Healthcare system and other public
service agencies

5. Challenges of
Covid-19 in
Children
(PPA Policy Brief
and Position
statement on
Covid19 and
Child Protection)
• Health impact on children
-Suspension of routine health services for
children
- Disruption of Immunization services
- Food Insecurity and Rise in Malnutrition
including micronutrient deficiencies
-Heightened risk of infection and fatal outcome
for children with pre-existing conditions
-Increased risk to children living in residential
care facilities and overcrowded neighborhoods

6. Covid19---A
child Rights
Crisis
• School closure and Home Confinement
• Mental Health of Children and Caregivers
• Rise in Child Abuse and Neglect/Domestic violence
• Child sexual abuse and Exploitation
• Vulnerable Groups of Children
• Online safety of children
• Lack of local empirical evidence on child rights and
protection
• Challenges of Parenting
• Rising poverty and unemployment leading to rise in
Child Labor and child marriages
(Progress towards achievement of SDG jeopardized)

7. What needs to be done to protect
children (based on PPA Policy Brief)
Prof. Aisha Mehnaz, Focal Person CRC-PPA
and Chairperson Konpal

8. Recommendations
:
• The state and society step up its efforts to support
children and their families through effective policies and
a plan of action.
• These policies should have a robust short term as well as
long term plan for the rehabilitation of the affected
communities.
• Federal & Provincial Govts, civil society, media and
leaders in every sector need to play their part and
urgently respond with a united efforts to
• Protect children from the heightened risk of violence
and abuse as part of the broader response to COVID-19.
• The Federal and Provincial Governments must make sure
that child protection is included and budgeted in
COVID-19 response plans and the work of child
protection agencies and professionals is adequately
supported and facilitated.

9. Our
collective
response
must
include:
• Designing, funding and scaling up COVID-19 prevention
and response measures for children and their families;
• Maintaining essential health services, including mental
health and psychosocial support and
• Reviving & strengthening the Immunization services.
• Enhance awareness raising on different aspect of risks to
children
• Communicating and engaging with
parents/caregivers/teachers/ social workers/Children
• Strengthening Tiger Force of volunteers, and children
themselves with evidence-based advice and information.
• All communication should be disseminated in plain
language, across accessible formats, through mass and
digital media channels.

10. The
Government
need to scale
up social
protection
mechanisms
• Ehsas, Zakat ,Baitul-mal and other safety nets for the
most vulnerable families and children.
• Need to facilitate and coordinate with the civil society
organizations to enhance the impact and outreach of the
social protection program.
• Scale up the scope and coverage of Education TV
channel and online education for children.
• The Govt/IT/ social networking platforms should join
forces to keep children and young people safe online by
• Enhancing safety features and new tools to help parents
and educators teach their children how to use the
internet safely.
• No-tech and low-teach solutions should also be put in
place to reach the furthest behind.

11. School
curricula
should
include :
• Violence prevention measures, psychosocial support, and
social and emotional learning activities.
• Create safe learning environment and mitigate impact of
the trauma and how to cope in disastrous situation.
• Safeguarding policies to reflect the new realities for
children learning from home and ensure that they have
continued access to any school-based counselling and
other support services.
• Provide practical support to parents and caregivers to
promote positive parenting through special projects
aimed at enhancing their parenting capacities
• Personal hygiene and environmental cleanliness should
be part of curricula from the early school age.

12. Scale up and
support the
Hospital
Child
Protection
• Establish, scale up and support the Hospital
Child Protection Committees (established by
PPA) to provide comprehensive services to
victims of child abuse and neglect.
• HCPC are established in Punjab, Sindh and
other provinces ,but are in a state of varying
degree of functioning. It need to be revived
and more such HCPCs need to be
established throughout Pakistan and should
be supported by the respective Provincial
Governments.
• Networking and linkages of HCPCs with
relevant departments/organizations.

13. UNICEF Perspectives of Child
Protection during COVID-19
Ms. Micaela Pasini, Head Child Protection
Program UNICEF Pakistan

14. Cybercrimes During
Lockdown
Dr Kishwar Enam
Department of Pediatrics and Child Health
The Aga Khan university Hospital

15. Online risks for children
• Content harmful or not appropriate to watch
• Coercion and extortion by the predators searching for children on
social media , gaming and other platforms for sexual purposes
• Grooming
• Cyberbullying
• Sexting
• Games with gambling like elements
• Dark web

16. Why the increased risk now?
• Kids are home, increase time on internet
• Schools closed, online education, less secure educational applications
• A child who is lonely and isolated or has mental health problems
becomes an easier target of the predators
• Parent’s supervision not available due to workload, illness, mental
health problems, neglect or ignorance
• Teenagers having nothing to do, indulging in risky behavior, exchange
explicit material
• Predators have increased their activity

17. Increase during COVID times
• Cybercrime wing FIA, Pakistan- Advisory for parents and children for Corona
emergency. 14th April 2020
• The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF)Pakistan has reported a 189 percent
increase in complaints on its cyber harassment helpline, as compared to
before the lockdown. The Express Tribune May 23rd,2020
• Europol has called the increased online activity by "those seeking child sexual
abuse material" the "most worrying" aspect of the coronavirus pandemic's
affect on crime in Europe. Euroobserver.com 19th May 2020
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) USA, has
received 4.2 million reports in April, up 2 million from reports March 2020,
106 percent increase from 2019. Forbes.com 9th May,2020
• Child abusers have created and shared an online grooming manual describing
ways to manipulate and exploit the increased number of children at home
and online during Covid-19, Australia’s e-safety commissioner has said. The Guardian
13th
May 2020

18. What to do if you come across cybercrime?
• Prevention of electronic crimes law passed in September 2016 by the
national assembly of Pakistan
• Pakistan-cybercrime wing FIA helpline 9911
• helpdesk@nr3c.gov.pk
• Digital Rights Foundation DRF
+92-42-35852180
• helpdesk@digitalrightsfoundation.pk

19. Tips for parents for online safety
• Talk to them about online safety
• Set up parental controls, safe search browser, strict private settings
• Programs like common sense media(CSM)
• Cover webcams when not in use
• Involve them on decision of technology used
• Open communication, positive support and be alert for any behavior
changes/distress.

20. Parent’s role in Child
Protection during
COVID-19
Dr. Naeem Zafar
Convener CRC-PPA,
President PAHCHAAN,
Head Child Rights Department University of Lahore

21. Common
Causes of
Stress in
Parents
• Fear of contracting disease
• Fear of transmitting it to children
• Death and Bereavement
• Hospitalisations and Isolation
• Working from Home
• No work
• Home isolation
• Information overload and Home remedies
• Conspiracy theories

22. Effects of Stress in Parents (Children)
Anxiety Depression and Panic ( transference to children)
Domestic Violence and Spouse abuse (Witnessing Abuse)
A lot of yelling and admonishing (Psychological trauma)
Child Beating (Corporal Punishment)
Neglect (May lead to Child Sexual Abuse and Injuries, Poisoning)
Extreme Protective attitude (Psychological and physical ill effects, Delayed Vaccination etc)

23. Other
Aspects of
Child Abuse
at home
• Gender Roles and Gender based violence
• School Closure. Loss of Education
• Early and Forced Marriage
• Domestic Servitude/Slavery
• Child Labour
• Neglected Medical Conditions
• Delayed Vaccinations and other Primary
health interventions
• Decreased support system for child
protection

24. Parental
Reponsibility
• Understand that Abuse and Neglect occurs
• Directly or indirectly Witnessing Abuse, TV
Violence
• Intentional or unintentional
• Progresses from mild to moderate to severe or
lethal if no action taken
• Understand that you are the most important
person to prevent it
• Through supporting your children
• Through understanding their issues
• Through personal examples
• Through learning and exploring resources

25. Where to get
support
• In person
• Some one you can talk to, Some one you can trust
• Child Care Worker, Health Professional, Trained Councillor
• Help lines https://www.unicef.org/stories/call-1166-covid-19-
helpline-centre-pakistan
• Google, Facebook, Whatsapp groups
• Trust worthy sites and groups
• UNICEF, WHO, CDC https://www.covid19parenting.com/
https://www.covid19parenting.com/urdu
• Government of Pakistan http://covid.gov.pk/
• ISPCAN Resourse Center
https://www.ispcan.org/covid19resourcepage/

29. • Thank you