We can see a number of children on almost every traffic light begging and selling goods, collecting garbage, at bus stands and on streets who spend most of the time on roads or streets without any parental guidance or protection. Some of these children are unaccompanied or runaway children from homes due to various reasons such as violence, abuse, exploitation, corporal punishment received from parents, teachers, employers, etc.
The number of street children in Pakistan is estimated to be between 1.2 million to 1.5 million, making it a host to one of the world’s largest street children populations.
There is a wide income disparity between the upper class and the less privileged, giving rise to a large segment of the population (and subsequently, young children) living in poverty. Street children in Pakistan are subject to a number of social issues, including homelessness, malnutrition, domestic, physical and mental abuse, forced labour, beggary, coercion into drugs and marginalization from mainstream society.
Most of these children are found alongside slums and roads of the country’s major urban centers. Due to poverty, many of them are driven into finding work such as recycling, polishing shoes, washing cars or selling roadside foods and cheap items, in order to make a living.
There have been efforts in the past to assist the plight of the needy children through various programs and by opening rehabilitation centers; however, the situation still remains, at large, one of the biggest socio-economic problems in Pakistan today.
There is a strong need that the government should form a strict policy or bring in some legislation for the protection of these children and keep them under a roof which can be of their own home, school, shelter or a place which may protect them from any further violence, abuse and exploitation.
MOHAMMED IMTIAZ AHMED
Islamabad
