Key Takeaways
- Speakers at a media briefing presented eight demands for minority rights protection.
- The demands include addressing gaps in political participation and civil liberties.
- The plan calls for the removal of discriminatory content from textbooks.
KARACHI: The Parliamentary Council for Human Rights and representatives of minority communities have presented an eight-point set of demands for the protection of minority rights in Sindh. These demands were outlined during a media briefing at a local hotel.
MNA and former federal minister Kamran Michael, along with Parliamentary Council for Human Rights Executive Director Shafiq Chaudhry, spoke at the briefing, emphasizing that minority rights should be treated as fundamental citizenship rights.
The speakers called for addressing gaps in political participation, civil liberties, employment, education, social protection, cultural rights, and protection from violence and coercion.
According to the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), 136 alleged cases of forced religious conversion were recorded in 2023, with most cases involving Hindu women and girls in Sindh.
The demands also include the removal of discriminatory and stereotypical content from textbooks, inclusion of the history, contributions, culture, and heritage of religious minorities in the curriculum, and scholarships for minority students.
The speakers further called for the recruitment of qualified teachers from minority communities and the collection of disaggregated, religion-based data to assess minorities’ access to social protection programmes, healthcare, education, housing, clean water, employment, and welfare schemes.
Additionally, the plan demands meaningful participation of minority communities in the protection and restoration of places of worship, cemeteries, religious seminaries, and historical sites.
The eight demands also include transparent implementation of the five per cent employment quota, strict enforcement of the minimum marriage age of 18 years, effective legislation against forced religious conversions, establishment of a district-level minority protection mechanism, implementation of religious education, curriculum reforms, improved religion-disaggregated data, and meaningful participation of minorities in political and parliamentary institutions.
The speakers called for measurable allocation of government resources for minority inclusion, including in education, employment, legal assistance, social protection, and the preservation of places of worship and cultural heritage.
