Women and Childern]

Urban Resource Center (URC) [WOMEN AND CHILDERN] NEWSCLIPPINGS JANURAY TO JUNE 2020 WOMEN & CHILDERN Urban Resource Centre A-2, 2nd floor, Westland Trade Centre, Block 7&8, C-5, Shaheed-e-Millat Road, Karachi. Tel: 021-4559317, Fax: 021-4387692, Email: [email protected], Website: www.urckarachi.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/URCKHI Twitter: https://twitter.com/urc_karachi Page 1 Urban Resource Center (URC) [WOMEN AND CHILDERN] Edhi Foundation found 375 bodies of newly born babies in 2019 The Edhi Foundation recovered over 300 bodies of newly born babies, mostly of girls, in different parts of the city during 2019 which were later on buried properly in graveyards, according to charity officials. The charity organisation‘s spokesperson, Saad Edhi, said that as many as 375 bodies of newborn babies were found at open places or roadsides in the metropolis in 2019. The spokesperson for the charity recalled that as compared to 2018, the figure of dead bodies of babies had doubled in 2019. Mr Edhi said he believed that most of the bodies were of girls. Faisal Edhi, head of the Edhi Foundation, told Dawn that there were several reasons behind this tragic situation. The number surpasses the figure of the preceding year He said that the main plausible reason was that some people did not want girl children. He claimed that when during ultrasound it transpired that the mother had conceived a girl, the family got abortion as they preferred a male child due to societal pressure. He regretted that in our society, mothers faced family pressures in case of conceiving a girl child, particularly when a woman already had several girls. Therefore, such mothers got abortion after four to five months of pregnancy. He said in certain cases, the families dropped the bodies of newly born girls at Edhi centres located in different parts of the city as it was difficult for them to get a death certificate from hospitals. Besides, relatives also feared arrest by law enforcers as abortion is illegal in the country. Faisal Edhi said that abortion was allowed only on ―solid medical grounds‖ such as saving the life of the mother. Saad Edhi said that another possible reason might be children who were born out of wedlock. According to the year-wise data provided by the Edhi Foundation, 20 bodies of newly born babies were found in the month of January, 31 in February, 24 in March, 35 in April, 17 in May, 29 in June, 35 in July, 40 in August, 18 in September, 22 in October, 22 in November, and 22 in December 2019. The charity spokesperson said that 313 bodies of newly born babies were brought to the Moosa Lane area of Lyari while 62 other bodies were brought to the Edhi morgue in the Sohrab Goth area. All the bodies were buried properly in Edhi graveyards. Teenager shot dead in Surjani A teenage boy was shot dead in Surjani Town on Saturday evening, police and rescue officials said. They added that the person was gunned down in Taiser Town. The body was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital to fulfil legal formalities. The victim was identified as Izharul Haq, 19. The police said that he had sustained a single bullet in the head. The incident occurred in the Arab Goth near Khuda Ki Basti. Area SHO Iftikhar Ahmed Qureshi said the police were trying to find out the motive for the murder. (By Imtiaz Ali Dawn, 15, 05/01/2020) Pregnant woman shot at, wounded outside school A 36-year-old pregnant woman was shot at and wounded while she was waiting at the gate of a private school for admission of her son in a Korangi locality on Saturday, police and hospital officials said. They added that Kiran with her husband, Amjad, had gone there to get their son admitted to the Karachi Public School near Korangi Crossing. She was waiting inside the car while her husband went inside the school. In the meantime, two suspects riding a motorbike appeared there. They shot and wounded her critically and fled. She was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment. Dr Seemin Jamali, executive director of the hospital, said that the woman was seven-months pregnant. She had sustained a bullet wound in the chest. She belongs to the Christian community. An Ibrahim Hyderi police officer said that it was not a botched robbery as the culprits did not take away anything. The family also told the police that they had no enmity with anyone. The police were investigating the case to ascertain the motive of the attackers. A resident of the same area told Dawn that this had been a relatively peaceful area where the incident occurred. A police post was established near the school, but it was recently vacated. Page 2 Urban Resource Center (URC) [WOMEN AND CHILDERN] Bike-snatchers injure young man A 32-year-old man was shot at and wounded by suspected robbers on resistance in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in the early hours of Saturday, Aziz Bhatti police said. They added that Wazeer Ali was riding a motorbike when gunmen on a motorcycle intercepted him at the NIPA (now NIM) bridge. They tried to snatch the bike from him. As he put up resistance, the gunmen opened fire on him and fled with the snatched two- wheeler. The victim sustained a bullet wound in a leg. In another incident, Ashfaq Ramzan, 45, was shot at and wounded by robbers on resistance outside a graveyard in Sector-5-G of the New Karachi Industrial Area on Saturday afternoon, according to an Edhi Foundation spokesperson. Minor girl drowns in SITE drain A minor girl drowned in a drain in the SITE area on Saturday evening, police and rescue officials said. They added that Noor Fatima, aged three to four years, was walking on a small bridge in Khyber Colony near Valika Chowrangi when she fell into a drain, said SITE-A SHO Yasin Gujjar. Around 40 to 50 residents of the same locality entered the drain but could not find her. Subsequently, the police called the rescue services but till late in the evening they also could not trace her. The officer said he believed that she had drowned. The Edhi Foundation spokesperson said that their four divers were busy in rescue efforts. The police officer said that the settlement was established adjacent to a drain where the residents have set up ―small bridges‖ on a self-help basis. (By Newspaper‘s Staff Reporter Dawn, 15, 26/01/2020) ‘South Asia one of the worst places to be a woman’ South Asia is one of the worst places to be a woman as in the region, they face several problems that need to be addressed on priority, said Farhat Parveen of the National Organisation for Working Communities on Sunday, addressing a ceremony at the Karachi Press Club to welcome a six-member peace delegation from Nepal. The delegation is visiting Pakistan to partake in global peace march titled ‗Jai Jagat 2020 ‗- a five-year programme engaging individuals from multiple countries and focused on organising international events covering deepening economic, social and environmental crises, eradicating poverty, eliminating social exclusion and ending violence. The march will culminate in Geneva in March this year. Speaking at the ceremony, Jagat Bahadur Basnet, a member of the delegation, said that most of the delegates were proponents of the land rights movement in their home country. ―Peasants in Nepal are facing poverty due to lack of resources and opportunities,‖ he pointed out. Dr Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, who heads the social sciences faculty at the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, shed light on problems being faced by people who were unable to travel to India from Pakistan for medical treatment. Meanwhile, Pakistan Institute of Labour, Education and Research executive director Karamat Ali underlined the need for the revival of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), saying that the summit was last held in 2014. Following that, another SAARC summit was to be held in 2016 in Islamabad but it could not take place, he added. Later, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum secretary general Saeed Baloch called attention to the problems faced by Pakistani and India n fishermen, who were often arrested while their launches were confiscated. Imran Sherwani, a journalist, stressed the need for media in South Asian countries to collaborate and work together. Former Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator Faheemuz Zaman Khan, Citizens-Police Liaison Committee former chief Nazim F Haji, Zahid Farooq of Urban Resource Centre, trade union leaders Habibuddin Junaidi, Qazi Khizar, Nasir Mansoor and Shujauddin, and members of the Nepalese delegation, including Basnet, Geeta Pandit, Bhawani Ghimire, Jagat Bahadur Deuja, Lyam Bahadur Darjee and Somparsad Bhandari, also attended the ceremony. (By PPI The Express Tribune, 05, 17/02/2020) 586 women among 1,287 committed suicide during five years in Sindh: study As many as 1,287 persons, including 586 females, committed suicide in over last five years across the province. Page 3 Urban Resource Center (URC) [WOMEN AND CHILDERN] Data compiled by the Sindh police for a study about suicides in the province said that 681 Muslims and 606 Hindus ended their life between Jan 1, 2014 and June 30, 2019. It said 702 of them aged between 21 and 40. Inspector General of Police Dr Syed Kaleem Imam told Dawn that the study was carried out by a newly established research wing of the police. This research was needed in the wake of growing incidents of suicide, particularly in lower Sindh. Its purpose was partly to sensitise the police and identify triggering factors behind suicides, the IGP said.

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