Human Trafficking in [Pakistan] [other countries]Street Children in [Pakistan Child Prostitution in [Pakistan] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children Islamic The Islamic Republic of Pakistan [map] is located in S Asia
and is bordered by India (E), the Arabian Sea (S), Iran (SW), and |
|
CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in A Video Playlist for Pakistan - There are an increasing number
of street children videos now available that constitute a supplementary
source of information for researchers, especially for those who may not have
experienced the reality of street children.
[Playlist developed by Brian Horne of almudo.com &
streetkidnews.blogsome.com] UNICEF - The Big Picture U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs CURRENT
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - The provincial government of the Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - According to a foreign aid
organization, of the 18 million children between the ages of 5 and 9, only 42
percent were in school. Less than half of children who enrolled completed
more than five years of education. Out of every 100 children who enrolled,
only 6 completed grade 12. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003 [78] The Committee expresses its
concern at the increasing number of street children and the vulnerability of
these children to violence, torture, sexual abuse and exploitation, the lack
of a systematic and comprehensive strategy to address the situation and
protect these children, and the very poor registration of missing children by
the police. Children
on an empty stomach on empty streets At a time when all the commerce in
Karachi is facing a shutdown and there is an acute shortage of basic
necessities in the city like food and fuel, no one is finding the going
tougher than the street-children of Karachi.
“I have not had a single bite to eat since yesterday morning as I was
unable to find anything,” said nineteen-year-old Sajid,
whose sustenance comes from the charity given at the shrines and different
hotels of Karachi. 9,000
sexually-abused street-children in City UNICEF Programme
Officer Shamshad Qureshi
announced the results of a UNICEF survey that there are 10, 000 street
children in Lahore, out of which 9,000 children have been sexually abused. He
said UNICET could reach only 3,000 sexually abused
children and rehabilitate them by giving them vocational training,
psychological aid and financial support to their parents. The study also
revealed that 51 percent of street children suffered HIV through injections
in Sargodha. - sccp School with no
buildings gives hope Tucked away in a quiet corner in
the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi is a school that
is creating an astonishing change in the lives of the city's street children. City
centres thronged by street children Children at Pirwadahi
and Faizabad are living in unhygienic and squalid
conditions. They live in under-construction buildings, hotel basements and
verandas of bus stands. Majority of such children has come to the city with
expectations to fend for themselves or their families through various
occupations but after arriving here, they discovered that streets were not
paved with gold. Saiqa Ashraf,
a psychologist working on child sexual abuse, said these children become
criminals, terrorists, revolutionaries, drug addicts and abusers. “They are
starving and ignorant, destined to become thieves or victims of child sexual
abuse. The girls become prostitutes but there is also male prostitution. The
boys are uncontrollably violent and have lost the ability to feel emotions
such as love. For the most part they are amoral,” she commented. Curbing
beggary among children: CDGR to open seven child protection centres The City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) with the help
of the Punjab government will set up seven protection centres
for street children below the age of 14, City District Nazim
Raja Javed Ikhlas told
Daily Times on Monday. He said the RCDG had rented seven houses in Morgha
and Kotha Kalan for
opening the child protection centres, which would
soon be inaugurated by Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry
Pervaiz Elahi. An army of
beggars has swarmed the length of Rawalpindi city
owing to the government’s failure to launch a crackdown on them or provide
them with alternative means of livelihood. The beggars throng shopping centres, streets, roads, restaurants and food outlets,
with their number swelling day by day. Begging women, children and disabled
men and women of all ages can be seen pestering motorists and pedestrians at
intersections, outside mosques and markets from early morning till late at
night. Shelter for street children arranged http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=69865 A local NGO Sehar
foundation has arranged temporary shelters for the protection of street children
against torrential rains at different marriage halls in Karachi. The management of these halls not
only agreed that their spaces be used for this purpose but also took upon the
responsibility to arrange meals for these children. Pakistan
has highest infant mortality rate in South Asia: SPARC The report gave a dark picture of
the Pakistani children’s condition. About 6.463 million children did not go
to school, which was the second largest number of such children in a country,
it said. In Karachi alone the number of street children was 25,000 and almost
four children were sexually molested daily. Pahchaan planning drop-in centre for street kids Dr Naeem
Zafar, president of Pehchaan,
said the NGO was providing several services including food and shelter, skill
building courses, hygiene courses, rest and recreation, psycho-social counselling, detoxification and legal protection. Also,
the organisation was educating 200 street and working children in the city. Police encouraged to cooperate with street children http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=45334 A situation analysis of Karachi
conducted by The Azad Foundation further revealed
the criminal record of street children. More than half of them had a criminal
record. On average, approximately 3,500 street children have remained in
police custody for 2-7 days. Data also showed that more than 3,000 were
charged of theft, 3200 were arrested for drug addiction, and more than 2,000
claimed to be arrested without any reason. Horrific fate awaits children spurned by society http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=43990 Consequently, an increasing trend
in sex exploitation was also witnessed over the years. As disclosed by the
street children near Bahadurabad and Allahwala Chowrangi, they
continue to be harassed and sexually abused at the hands of passers-by. Due
to this fear, these children prefer spending most of their time at drop-in centres that are operational during the day. “We feel
more scared at night because that is when truck drivers and policemen harass
us, but this centre is helpful because they teach us self-defence
techniques,” says 13-year-old Umair Ali who has
been living on the street for four years after he ran away from home because
his family pressurised him to get a job. Most of the children, spotted in Saddar, Karimabad, Tariq Road, Kala Pul and parts of Clifton, when refused job opportunities,
resort to pick-pocketing or sell sex for their day-to-day survival. The money
earned is then spent on addictives like cigarettes, drugs and inhalants,
mostly glues such as ‘Samad Bond’. “There are a lot
of small hotels and restaurants that offer us food so that is never an issue
for us. We don’t earn to make a living. The streets are where we spend our
lives. It’s the drugs we need money for,” adds Umair,
who further revealed that he was addicted to glue sniffing, a habit he is
unwilling to give up. - htsccp Findings show
dismal state of children in country Child rights groups have estimated
that over 50,000 children live on the streets of Pakistan, while most of the
juvenile population continues to be vulnerable to bonded labour,
harassment, sexual abuse and trafficking, and lacks access to health, education and
other basic needs. Many street children are also
addicted to drugs and have been sexually assaulted. It has been reported that
56 percent of street children run away from their homes due to domestic
violence, 22 percent because of hostile behaviour
of their parents and 12 percent due to their parents’ drug addiction. Parents
renting children out to gangs: Report Referring to such reports, he said
as early as four, these children beg and scavenge around rubbish dumps or
industrial waste sites and took on menial jobs as cart-pushers or dishwashers
working 12-15 hours a day to earn around Rs75 — enough to buy a meal. A report compiled by the Society
for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc)
said most children survive by prostituting themselves and stealing, making
them vulnerable to contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as
HIV/Aids. “They are also at high risk
from health problems such as tuberculosis, jaundice and kidney disorders.” The report suggests that 83 per
cent of street children were sniffing glue between the ages of eight to
nineteen. Some 54 per cent left home at age 10-12 while 45 per cent children
living on the streets are involved in crimes and 49 per cent are at high risk
of HIV/Aids. Pakistan street
kids plagued by glue sniffing The Pakistan Medical Association
says substance abuse among street children has reached alarming levels. "If more is not done soon, Pakistan is
heading for a street children hooked on glue crisis on the scale of other
countries like Morocco and Brazil," said Qaiser
Sajjad, the association's general-secretary. There
are about 14,000 street children in Karachi and most are sniffing glue, said Aksa Zainab, a social worker
who helps street kids at a drop-in centre operated by the Azad
Foundation in cooperation with UNICEF. Vulnerable and helpless on the street http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=36197 A majority of them are drug
addicts. The most popular and affordable of the durg
is a type of glue -- used mostly in home repair and maintenance -- which
these children inhale by putting it on a piece of cloth. One can see young
boys sniffing this glue openly on the streets and pavements that according to
one user, "tingles nose and make one slightly drowsy." The use of
other drugs including hashish, and even heroin are also rampant among many of
these streets children. Organised gangs of criminals -- peddling
drugs or operating begging rackets -- take these children under their wings
and use them in criminal activities. Many children also resort on their own
to begging and petty crimes, raising enough money to buy themselves food and favourite drug. Govt, masses urged to rehabilitate
street urchins http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=34580 Recalling an incident where a
child was abducted from Data Darbar and admitted to
a hospital, he said that one kidney of the child was removed in an operation.
The matter was being probed by the authorities concerned, but the society at
large was responsible for such incident. Lahore’s
street children find alternatives at UNICEF-supported centre Rehan, who may be “nearly 18,” does not
have the physique of a teenage boy. That’s because Rehan
is actually Rehana, a girl disguised as a boy to
survive on the streets of Heera Mandi,
Lahore’s red-light district. “Can you
imagine what would happen to me if I dressed as a girl?” she asks. Street
children in Pakistan at risk of contracting Aids The phenomenon of street children
in Pakistan poses a complex social challenge, and these children are at the
high risk of a myriad of physical and psychological problems as a result of
both the circumstances that preceded their homelessness and the direct
consequence of life on the streets. Pakistan's 1.2 million street children abandoned & exploited “Street wise” as early as four,
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 or US$1.25- enough to buy a meal if they
are fortunate. Most survive by prostituting
themselves, stealing or smuggling, making them vulnerable to contracting
sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Jaundice and liver
or kidney disorders. A large
proportion sniffs cheap, readily available solvents to starve off hunger,
loneliness and fear. Number of street
children on the rise Living on the rough and tumble
streets of Karachi
Has Largest Number Of Pakistan's Street Children Poverty and domestic physical and
mental abuse "are the key factors that lead children to begin a life on
the streets. Be it economic or social factors,
street children leave their homes for an uncertain future. Many find work collecting waste paper,
cleaning cars, working as shoe shiners or in small eateries. Some fall back on begging, pick-pocketing
or offer themselves to sex perverts, while others
end up as drug addicts. They use
inhalants that are cheap and easily available but cause irreversible brain
damage. Thirteen year-old Zahid spends his nights at Cantt
railway station in Thousands of Pakistani Street Children Addicted to Glue They may not have access to drugs
like heroin and marijuana, but that doesn't stop thousands of street children
in Information
about Street Children - Pakistan [DOC] Street
Children and Juvenile Justice in Pakistan [PDF] In his trial, Iqbal
made a point of claiming that as no one ever notices when a street child
disappears, he could have gone on to kill 500 before anyone took action. The revelation of Iqbal's
horrific crimes, committed with two teen accomplices, woke up human rights
groups in All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Pakistan] [other countries]Street Children in [Pakistan Child Prostitution in [Pakistan] [other countries]