Peshawar's Street children increasing in City

The Frontier Post
PESHAWAR: The number of children cleaning windscreens, selling flowers and other stuff on traffic signals is increasing in provincial capital. Interestingly, these children not only include boys but also girls both aged between 10 to 14. As soon as you stop at a traffic signal one of these children will come in front of your car and start cleaning the windscreen without even asking for your permission. Increase in number of such children clearly depicts the failure of our governments to provide best possible facilities to the people. According to a report published sometime back in 2005, an estimated 1.2 million children were on the streets of Pakistan’s major cities and urban centres, constituting the country’s largest and most ostracised social group. These included ‘Runaway’ children who live or work on the street, as well as the minority that return to their families at the end of the day with their meagre earnings. People give them a meager amount of Rs 2 to Rs 5 for cleaning the windscreens, as these children stay on the roads till late night. If you ask these children why they are working on the streets and why not going to school, most of them will answer in the same way. “My father is sick and he can not earn, that is why I am here.” Or they will say “my father is an addict and there is no one at home who can earn for us, and I am the eldest one so I am doing this.” However, according to some NGOs most of these children start such work after running from their homes and having no contact what so ever with their families. There is also a growing concern that these children will be a victim of human trafficking or will be used for illicit purposes. Especially, the girls could be trafficked in sexual business. There is dire need of taking steps in order to give government protection to such children. The government should take some real measures in order to save the future of these innocent children.