“Iwas 10 when I left Khanpur and my family behind. I came to Lahore with a dream of earning money to support my family. My first job was loading books onto a big truck and for that, I got Rs10,000 a month.”

That’s how a sharp boy under 14 years of age narrated his story. Having roughly cropped hair and dressed in a pair of torn jeans and shirt, one met him during a visit to the Kotwali police station a few days ago.

“I want to go to Edhi Centre,’’ he said. “A friend of mine will visit the Centre and make arrangements to have me released,” he added.

There were three other boys, all under 14 years who had been brought in by DSP Tariq Kiyani’s rescue team. The team rescues street children and hands them over to the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, where the responsibility and custody of these children is taken on by the internal court of the Bureau.

Mr Kiyani says most of them are repeat offenders. In his view, children run away from home because of domestic difficulties, poverty, peer pressure, corporal punishment, breakdown of homes, physical and emotional abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse, sexual orientation and gender identity issues. Unicef defines street children as boys and girls under the age of 18 years, for whom “the street” has become home or their source of livelihood and who are inadequately protected or supervised.

According to a report from the UK-based Consortium for Street Children, Unicef estimated that 100 million children are living and growing up on urban streets around the world. More recently, Unicef stated that “the exact number of street children is impossible to quantify, but the figure almost certainly runs into tens of millions across the world’’.

The streets of Pakistan are home to an estimated 1.5 million children. Most of these children spend their days and nights on the streets chasing cars, stalking and scavenging, all in the hope of some form of charity. It is debatable whether the number of street children is growing globally, or whether it is an increased awareness of street children within societies which has grown.

These children are exposed to many crimes such as drug addiction, sexual exploitation and begging. Even more sinister is the use of these children by criminal gangs and mafias who often mutilate parts of their bodies and use them for begging. They are also at great risk of contracting HIV/AIDS due to sexual abuse and exploitation.

According to Pakistan’s constitution, the state is responsible for the welfare of children. The government of Punjab took a positive initiative to resolve this issue and Under Section 5 of The Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act (PDNCA) 2004, it established a “Child Protection and Welfare Bureau’’. The objective of the bureau is to rescue street children.

“The Child Protection Rescue Officers Team, along with local police and district administration, rescues such children. It is the state’s responsibility to secure them and provide them school, shelter and good quality of life,” Mrs Saba Sadiq, chairperson of the bureau, said.

Pakistan appears to have a more basic and indeed, crucial problem. It has been noted that the government of Punjab has yet to legislate and agree on the definition of who is a “child”. The following laws speak to this loophole.

The Punjab Prohibition of Child Labour At Brick Kilns Act 2016, section 2(e) defines any person under the age of fourteen as a “child”. This act prohibits the use of such a child in the labour market and it provided for the regulation of labour at the brick kilns in Punjab. Similarly, The Punjab Restriction on Employment of Children Act 2016 prohibits the employment of children. According to Section 2(c), any person who has not attained the age of fifteen years is still regarded as a “child.”

This unhelpful ambiguity continues as far as the definition of a child is concerned. Furthermore, the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 says any person under the age of sixteen should be considered a ‘child’. This poses a specific difficulty for those seeking clarification on this issue in the Punjab legal system.

Pakistan is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). According to this convention, persons under the age of 18 are children. Article 19 of UNCRC says that it is the state’s responsibility to intervene in the case of any form of child abuse, whether in the care of parents, legal guardians or any other person who has the care of the child. There is little evidence to show that the government is complying with this Convention.

“There is no child protection policy in any province including Punjab, nor is there any plan of action to protect children from all forms of abuse and exploitation,” Iftikhar Mubarik, child rights activist, shed further light on the issue.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 16.2 stresses the need to end the abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture of children. After the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, it became the responsibility of the provincial government to take all legislative and administrative policies and other measures to ensure the protection of children.

The resulting problems for street children are diverse. “Street children are vulnerable to the development of conduct disorders and ultimately psychopathic tendencies; this then becomes a great threat to society,’’ said Dr Farah Malik, Director Institute of Applied Psychology of the Punjab University.

“Furthermore, the government hesitates to include experts in its teams to devise programmes for appropriate psychological interventions. They do not appear to be able to engage in the prevention of runaway behaviour tendencies from homes and they are not educating communities and teachers to aid in this either. They appear to be under pressure from the establishment and politicians who want get hold of all manner of key posts, even if they do not have any expertise in that area,” Dr Malik commented on this issue.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2017