Writing articles on the plight of children is both - emotional and heart-wrenching. However, having said this, it is worth discussing about these unfortunate children so that hopefully someone somewhere gets to know about the growing problem and shares with others to increase the awareness. This particular article provides an outlook on the sufferings of street children in Pakistani cities and towns.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, about 1.2 million Pakistani children and adolescents live on the streets under inhumane conditions enduring all sorts of abuses from passers-by, law enforcement agencies, and peers. The UNICEF report proving that out of 10,000 street children in the city of Lahore, 9,000 are sexually abused is hard to believe and yet, this is the reality of Pakistan and South Asia as a whole.
We (irrespective of our nationalities) tend to care little about our economically and emotionally deprived people (especially children) in the sub-continent. How can one expect economic revolution and development in the region, when we cannot protect our deprived future generations?
For once let us not talk about the political quagmire that is taking place in Islamabad following the emergency. Politicians and society as a whole should use their energy more on helping the deprived children start a normal life that would make the social environment healthy and prosperous. Low status in society makes children the target of emotional and physical abuses.
One of the most important factors that is increasing the number of street children is poverty. Not only in Pakistan, but across the sub-continent, children from the villages migrate to cities and towns in search of jobs, but end up being exploited. Lack of proper education and skills force the poor children to work in the informal sector as apprentices in mechanical workshops, cleaners in buses and vehicles, beggars, shoe-polishers etc. Subsequently, these children and adolescents end up mixing with anti-socials and engage themselves in drug trafficking, sex rackets and other illegal lucrative businesses.
According to NGO and governmental reports, sexual abuses of boys and girls are widespread in police stations and prisons across Pakistan. The Lahore High Court in 1996 provided a survey that showed out of 200 child prisoners across the province of Punjab, 63 had been sexually abused in jail. If these atrocities occur at the hands of the protectors of law and society, where would the poor people get the confidence to describe their grievances?
Out of a seemingly hopeless situation, there is one semblance of hope when one hears of the efforts made by the UNICEF to rehabilitate the sexually-abused children. It must be admitted that in recent years the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has made huge investments in protecting child rights throughout South Asia and now its up to the individual states to show the urgency to protect our future generations.
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