The term " Street Children" is
used to describe both aspects of children (who work in the streets and markets
of different cities selling different kind of items of ordinary life or begging
and live with their families) and homeless street children (who work, play, live
and sleep in the streets and have no contact with their families). UNICEF
defines a "street child" in three categories(1) street living children: children
who have run away from their families and live alone on the streets, (2) street
working children: children who spend most of their time on the streets, fending
for themselves, but returning home on a regular basis, and (3) street family
children: children who live on the streets with their families. This kind of
children we see everywhere in different cities and areas of the country. They
usually sell flowers, clothes, green tea and fruits, etc or polish shoes or
collect garbage and some survive on begging. Some people even look at them as
criminals.
There are an estimated 100 million children living in the streets in the world
today (UNICEF, 2010). Children living on the streets are especially vulnerable
to victimization, exploitation, and the abuse of their civil and economic
rights. International indifference to the problem has led to continual neglect
and abuse of these children. Street children are more likely to be boys than
girls and are more likely to be the age 11 to 15. Many girls live on the streets
as well.
UNICEF statements show that street children spend 1-3 years on the streets on
average and are more likely to engage in gang activity, abuse of drugs and or
alcohol, and early sexual promiscuity than peers. There are many factors which
can push children into the street, including poverty, family breakdown, armed
conflict, violence, war, natural and man-made disasters, forced marriage,
financial independence, and city glamour. It is often a combination of these
push and pull factors that keeps children connected to the streets. Street
children often don’t have access to a healthy and sufficient diet. Sometimes
they don’t even have food, because living on the streets, they don’t produce any
and don’t have money to buy. These children don’t benefit from a balanced diet:
they eat what they can find. Sometimes, when they have the choice, they favour
unhealthy foods such as ice cream, cakes, etc. and so run the risk of
malnutrition. Growth problems are also common to them.
It is often supposed that street children are only to be seen in developing
countries, but almost all countries, rich or poor, have young people living on
the street, many under the age of 18, and in some countries considerably
younger. It was estimated that there were one to two million young people living
on the streets in the USA in 2003. In 2000, there were 20 million street
children in Latin America, India has 18 million street children.
In addition to the USA, Canada also has children and young people living on the
street. In one study in Toronto, 82 per cent of street-involved youth reported
being a victim of crime – many involved violent physical or sexual assault. In
Europe too, there are young people on the street. A report in 2005 tells of
100,000 young people in the UK who have run away from home and one in six of
them sleeps rough. Similar figures can be found for Spain and the Netherlands
and these figures include young unaccompanied migrant and asylum-seeking
children.
Children are the purest form of human beings. An estimated 1.2 million children
are working and living on streets in different cities and urban areas of
Pakistan, These include runaway children who live or work on the streets as well
as the minority that return to their families at the end of the day. According
to a survey conducted by the United Nations Office on drugs and crimes, 72% of
working children do not have any contact with their families and 10% have no
knowledge of their families.
In Pakistan, estimates put the
number of children living in 2003 on the streets of Karachi is 12,000, and other
10,000 in Lahore. It is believed there are some 70,000 children living on the
streets nationwide. According to the NGO statistics, in Karachi 54.1% of the
street children left their homes between the age of 10 and 12. They also
estimate that 45% of street children are involved with criminal activity in
order to survive while 49% are at a high risk of HIV/AIDS through intravenous
drug usage and sexual abuse.
These street children are not the street children, actually these are the state
children and it is the responsibility of the state to provide them (1) food,
clothing, shelter, education, health care, love, protection and basic rights.
(2) an opportunity for a career outside of begging.(3) Prevent conflict within
their family. (4) Reduce poverty in the communities and homes. (5) Enforce law
system to protect them. (6) Promote their integration into society.(7) Encourage
more programs that support them (8) Promote child rights.
Government should take serious steps to solve this problem and make them
responsible citizen of the society.