If you happen to pass by a
garbage dump, stop for a moment and look at what is going on. You will notice
cats, dogs and human beings, mainly children, trying to find something to eat,
or something that can be sold, such as waste paper, plastic bottles, cardboard
etc., to fetch food. If you don’t walk through these ghettos and happen to drive
through the clean and beautifully illuminated roads in fashionable localities of
a big city, sometimes traffic lights will force you to stop. Here, you are
surrounded by many innocent, lonely and frightened young children who have been
literally abandoned by their parents and relatives, found themselves on the
street from the beginning because of family problems, or have chosen to leave
home due to some kind of constant abuse.
Who are they? They are basically street children; when they get some paid work
they become working children and when they are out of employment, they relapse
and become “street children”.
Street children throughout the world are subjected to physical abuse by police
or have been murdered outright, as governments treat them as a blight to be
eradicated-rather than as children to be nurtured and protected. They are
frequently detained arbitrarily by police simply because they are homeless, or
criminally charged with vague offenses such as loitering, vagrancy, or petty
theft.
These children beg and scavenge around rubbish dumps or industrial waste sites
or take on menial jobs as cart pushers or dish washers, working 12-15 hours a
day to earn around 75 rupees, enough to buy meal if they are fortunate. Most
survive by wide range of activities from begging, pimping to pick pocketing,
small roadside burglaries, snatching mobile phones etc. These children live in
packs, sleep on the pavements and are involved with different activities
together.
According to estimates by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a
considerable number of nearly 30 million South Asian children who have dropped
out of school or leave their home are engaged in some form of work. Most of them
are street children.
Unfortunately, this is not the story in Asia. The report by the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan says that the number of child laborers has risen to 10
million. These young people range in age from three to eighteen. Most of them
are in developing countries.
Educating these children can help avoid their exclusion from a range of
opportunities available in big cities. Yet, several factors conspire to deprive
them of education. Their parents can’t afford the costs which compel them to
work as domestic helpers or street vendors or beg to supplement their family
incomes. For this purpose, NGOs working with slum children provide their staff
special training in participatory, child-centered teaching methods to address
the needs of hard-to-reach children.
International Labour Organization (ILO) Pakistan Chapter is opening 28
rehabilitation centers through an implementing partner for child labourers that
will be functional from August 2008. The newly established centers are also
expected to extend efforts to combat child labour and promote education,
especially for girls through imparting basic skills and knowledge.
Street children are mainly boys, but the number of girls is also increasing. In
the evenings these children standing on the street signals selling flowers watch
the cars speed away. They see many families having fun time together in parked
cars by a juice shop or a burger point. Like all other children, they also seek
for protection. Being together in a protective environment under the guidance of
someone who cares for them gives these children a sense of security.
They need access to counseling, information, knowledge, skills, and a supportive
community to protect themselves from harm, help them move off the street, and
take back control of their future. They also need better access to health and
safety services—medical care, legal aid, and food—and business training so they
can develop safe and more profitable ways of earning money.
There are countless children waiting to have a worthwhile change in their lives.
We need to recognize these children and youth who are full of imagination,
desires, and hopes and that they must be involved in decisions that affect their
lives.
But the question still unanswered that what the future holds for these innocent
faces?