Street Children in Pakistan

Street Children in Pakistan

Abstract

A number of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America have implemented

successful interventions to ameliorate the street child phenomenon. However, Pakistan‟s

efforts for eradicating the problem have been limited and it is estimated that 70,000

street children currently exist in the country. There are a plethora of complex factors that

have coalesced to create a socio-economic climate conducive to the persistence of

street children. The US war in Afghanistan which began in October 2001 led to the

immediate influx of approximately 200,000 Afghan refugees into Pakistan, and of the 1.5

million refugees that crossed the border in 2001 an estimated 59% were children. The

Afghan children are discriminated against in terms of employment opportunities and

physical and sexual abuse and exploitation. The survival of a street child is substantially

defined by severe socio-economic instability and deprivation leading to high risk coping

strategies. Evidence indicates that 90% of street children in Pakistan are involved in

inhalant abuse; this combined with risky sexual behaviour and vulnerability to disease,

makes street children one of the most ostracised and marginalised social groups in the

country. Despite preventative measures from the national government and rehabilitative

projects sponsored by non-governmental organisations, policies and programmes in

Pakistan are both quantitatively and qualitatively inadequate. Examples of successful

interventions internationally, in terms of preventative programmes and rehabilitation

through education and vocation, provide lessons for Pakistan.

DEFINITION OF STREET CHILDREN

WHO ARE STREET CHILDREN?

Children (under 18 years) who spend most of their time on the streets. There are between 10 to 100 million street children worldwide, depending on the exact definition used.

The target group is homeless and vulnerable street children including their families, who are at high risk of exploitation and physical and emotional abuse, especially through forced commercial sex and violence in the streets.

DEFINITION OF STREET CHILDREN:

"Street children" is a term often used to describe both market children (who work in the streets and markets of cities selling or begging, and live with their families) and homeless street children (who work, live and sleep in the streets, often lacking any contact with their families). At highest risk is the latter group. Murder, consistent abuse and inhumane treatment are the "norm" for these children, whose ages range from six to 18. They often resort to petty theft and prostitution for survival. They are extremely vulnerable

The phenomenon of street children poses a complex social challenge. These children are

at alarmingly high risk for a myriad of physical and psychological problems as a result of

both the circumstances that preceded their homelessness, and as a direct consequence of

life on the streets. Our report has identified a multitude of issues and concern specific to

this group of vulnerable individuals which need urgent addressal.

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

Street children have been a distinct social underclass which has stayed neglected by the

world for a fairly long period of time. The issue of street children remained dormant until

1996 when UN officially short listed this issue as one of the major social anomalies our

world is being faced up with today. Over the past few years, the world has witnessed a visible increase in the number of

children living and working on the streets, to an extent that today the numbers have

reached epidemic proportions. The exact numbers of street children has always remained

unknown since these children are usually not counted, nor are they subject to census.

Even the modest of the estimates indicate that there are millions of children living on the

streets ದ the numbers rapidly growing.

The phenomenon of street children poses a complex social challenge. In the majority of

cases street children are first and foremost the victims of poverty and factors closely

associated with it. Several other factors are usually considered to be responsible for the

prevalence of street children. Some of those are conflicts with in the family, poor parenting,

physical, emotional and sexual abuse, peer influence, domestic violence, death of parents,

urbanization, famine and war, all of these activate the desire to seek opportunities outside

the home environment or parental control. But such a rosy dream shattered up when they

face the brutalities of the real world

The World Health organization defines Street children

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as:

ಯchildren who have to work on the streets because