FAQ’s
Q1. What is the definition of street children?
UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) defines street children as:
- Children on the street: children who have to work on the street because their families need the money to survive.
- Children in the street: children from poor families who sleep on the streets. Some come from underprivileged parts of the country into the city, others have run away.
- Children of the street: Orphans & abandoned children whose parents have died because of illness or war, or to whom it was simply impossible to look after their children.
Azad Foundation scopes this group as children who live and/or work on streets including children of homeless families and those who beg without any adult. The key differential from other children is the absence of adult supervision during the time these children spend on streets. OR Street children can also be defined as “they are those for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word: i.e unoccupied dwelling, wasteland etc) more than their family has become their real home, a situation in which there is no protection, supervision, or direction from responsible adults.”
“Street children or children of the street are either orphans or children who have been turned out or abandoned by their parents. But most of them have run away from their home.”
Following are the subcategories of Children in Street Situations:
Living: Children who ran away from their homes and live and work on streets fall in this category. These children are 24/7 on streets and have no connection with their families. They are most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Reasons behind leaving home include poverty, domestic violence, corporal punishment and peer pressure.
Working without supervision (highly vulnerable): Children who come to work on streets, 10 to 14 hours a day, fall into this category. Usually their parents send them to streets to find work like garbage picking, un-bonded labor, car wash, or selling items at signals. These children are very much at risk of developing strong street connections and one day leave their home to live on streets. Generally, they are not part of an organized working system.
Working with supervision: Children belonging to this category are the same as the children who work without supervision, but there is one stark difference between them both i.e. children in this category work under the supervision of their parents or an employer. As a result, children working under supervision are less vulnerable to exploitation.
Following are the sub-categories.
Homeless: Children of homeless families are a new and growing category in Pakistan. Their numbers spiked especially after the earth quake in 2005 and subsequent natural disasters and the war on terrorism that forced millions of people to migrate from northern areas of Pakistan to large metropolitan cities in order to find refuge. They are as much at risk as working children since they also roam the streets and develop similar connections while being unsupervised by any adult.
Beggars: Not all begging children fall under children in street situations. Only those who are begging unprofessionally, without adult supervision and spend at least 6 to 8 hours on streets are considered under this category. They are also vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation and abuse especially the girls.
At Risk Children: These are children who are not living, working, begging or in state of homelessness on the streets. They are part of poor, underprivileged and marginalized communities where poverty rule and their access to education, health, hygiene and opportunities to a better life is minimal or next to none. They are out-of-school and spend most of their time out of their homes without any adult supervision or guidelines. They are very susceptible to turn towards drugs, exploitation and one day become a part of streets. We estimate that there are almost 8 million children living in such communities/slums in large metropolitan’s cities of Pakistan.
Q2. Why do children live or work on the streets?
Causes that bring children to streets may be different. It is an established fact supported by multiple researches and situational analyses that poverty and other contributing factors such as ruptured family system, neglect, physical, psychological, abandonment, imprisonment of parents, and divorce etc play key roles in pushing children to leave home. And at the same time it is quite difficult to depict all those problems, issues, distress, sufferings and despairs of street children as clearly as we have found them due to cultural and other barriers. However, attempts have been made to highlight only those issues of children which are of great concern not only for us as a society but as Humans. Children may migrate to the streets for other reasons as well, including: Peer Pressures, domestic violence and urbanization.
Q3. What kind of jobs do the Street children do?
Street children do menial jobs like garbage picking, unbounded labor, and selling minor items like newspapers, tissues, toys, flowers or cheap eating / wearing goods at signals / streets or at other public places. People hire them sometimes to work for them as servants and stewards, but unfortunately in most of the cases these children are considered as open prey easily available for exploitation, people with hidden dark purposes pay and involve these innocent children in illegal duties, on behalf of which these children could be harmful assets for future, which must be vehemently prohibited. While the rest of the children beg from other people in the name of religion, such children belong to illiterate underprivileged and marginalized communities, many of them have lack of abilities to work in any area.
Q 4. What are the risks of children being on the streets?
There are various possibilities of disastrous risks of a child being on the street. Including the vulnerable children who remain from being registered, not having any supervision and advocacy are left defenseless against maltreatment by the individuals who realize that they have no security from family or the law, and no response to equity. Such children can be easily targeted by the abusers even by law enforcement or government officials too. Street children don’t have someone to guide them; they are sometimes hired by the gangs and work as a group for begging and stealing and performing other street activities. These children can be easily exposed to criminal activities and substance use. Drug addiction and sometimes commercial prostitutions remains the only way for them to curb the realities of the crucial life of the street filled with non-equality and discrimination. Many researches show that these children develop a very low range of positive emotions and hope for well-being and a second chance to life to suffer from anxiety, humiliation, and alienation provided by their circumstances.
Q5. How many Street children are there in Pakistan?
There are estimated 1.5 million children living in the street situations in Pakistan who are working or living in the streets. However, the children at risk who are not begging, working or living in street situations and belong to underprivileged and marginalized communities, where poverty rule, having no access to hygiene, health, education and opportunities to a better life; the quantity of such children are about 8 million in Pakistan, which would keep increasing until immediately be acknowledged by the higher authorities. Azad Foundation is working with 12 districts throughout Pakistan to prevent the risk of the next 8 million children from the street situations.
Q6. How many Street children are there in the world?
According to the UN (United Nations) report there are 100 to 140 million street children worldwide that is more than the entire population of France and Great Britain combined.
Out of these “20 million children live on the streets around the clock without their own family.” And there are 25 million street children in South Asia.
While in Pakistan the number of street children is around 1.5 million, whereas 220,000 street children are found in Karachi alone. However, the children at risk who are not begging, working or living in street situations and belong to underprivileged and marginalized communities, where poverty rule, having no access to hygiene, health, education and opportunities to a better life; the prevalence of such children are about 8 million in Pakistan.
Q7. How many organizations are working for Street children in Pakistan?
There are various types of organizations, such as National and International, empowering, service orientated and charitable organizations which are working for the rights of street children along with many other social activities like Azad Foundation, Dost Foundation Peshawar, IHDF and many other non-profit organizations. Such organizations are based on public funding, donation and charity through which they can help amending the lifestyle of street children, fight for their rights, bringing positive change, rehabilitation, integration and child protection in the society and eliminating the possibility of further barriers in the sustainability of their lives.
Q8. How many children are sexually exploited and abused in Pakistan every year?
There are various surveys available telling that each year almost 7-9 children are abused daily in Pakistan according to expert opinions. There are more than 3000 cases been reported almost every year mentioning varying figures regarding the child sexual abuse all across Pakistan. Study reveals that in these cases more girls become the victim of sexual abuse than boys both under the age of 6-16. In 2018, there were 3,307 such incidents reported to police, while a total of 3,832 child abuse cases, 2,327 cases of child sexual abuse alone, were reported by newspapers in all four provinces (having Punjab province on the top followed by Sindh) which was considered to have increased by 11 per cent in year 2018 compared to 2017 as researches declared, while a little varying ratio continues to appear in the year 2019 and 2020.
Q9. What are the basic Child Protection issues in Pakistan?
Child protection issues in Pakistan are like the bitter truth of the nation before the world. There are as many issues of child protection including child labour, brick kiln bondage, domestic slavery, child labor, corporal punishment, trafficking, prostitution, child sexual abuse and exploitation, drug abuse and harassment, harmful customary practices, health issues and disabilities in children due to lack of better access to life. Study shows that these child protection issues found with almost every street child in Pakistan can result in drastic socio-economic consequences in the upcoming eras.
Q10: What are the key policy issues of street Children in Pakistan?
There are various key policy issues for the children in street situations in Pakistan that include birth registration, child rights, child labor, child sexual abuse and exploitation, early childhood marriages, gender biased norms and child protection issues found in almost every region of Pakistan. The injustice found in the juvenile justice system and the disturbed situations in the rights of health and basic education are also considered as the key policy issues of our country regarding street children. The provinces have been active in adopting and promulgating on legislation on child rights but the laws fall short in provision of social protection specifically for street children.
Q11: What is guiding Principal of the CRC (Convention on the Rights of Children)?
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (UNCRC) does not only guarantee and entail basic rights to the children, but the Convention has also laid out the guiding principles for any and all interventions for children around the globe. These four guiding principles are the bedrock of Azad Foundation’s (AF) philosophy of work as highlighted below.
Best Interest of the Child
A contrast exists in the concept of human rights as an 18-year-old human is entitled to more rights than an 8 years old. This is essentially, and intrinsically, against the concept of human rights. Eliminating this unethical division constitutes one of our core aims. We uphold the notion that all children must be guaranteed basic rights and whatever decisions are taken must reflect those rights.
Participation
Participation empowers those about whom a decision is being taken. Therefore, we justly realizes the importance of including a child so as to enable him to participate in the decision-making process, actively. We believe a child must not only be aware of the decision, but he should have an overall awareness of the process, implementation, and the consequences of any decision on his life.
Survival and Development
Survival is the most important UNCRC guiding principle for us. That is why, we have gone one step further and included ‘development’ with this principle. This is because we realize that, from a street child’s perspective, survival is the most pressing issue a street child faces. Thus, if it is not guaranteed then his development also cannot be guaranteed.
Non-discrimination
All children on the streets must be reached out, rendered services, and treated alike. This is the sheer manifestation of our commitment towards the cause of children in street situations. It overlooks race, ethnicity, family background, linguistic background, social status, and gender to uplift the condition of children in street situations in all services and interventions with them.
