Street kids victims of circumstances

Zardad Khan is hardly eight years old. He is too young to earn, but he is, like hundreds of street kids who supplement their families' income across the country. He collects paper (raddi) moving from one garbage dump to another and from street to street.
Paper fetches Rs 3 per kilo. Hence, he earns between Rs 30-40 daily. He accompanies his elder brother Bakht Khan, 11. Their appearance is made up of buffets and deprivations of life. Wax on their face, depressed eyes and cold weather leaving scars on their cheeks and lips are enough to tell life has not been friendly to them.
Ironically, they don't know what is meant by future or facilities. Formerly, they lived with their parents and four other brothers and sisters in a Katchi abadi near I-10 sector, but now they have moved to a railway crossing, furlongs away from Pirwadhai bus stand.
"We like our relatives and friends were forced to vacate the abadi last year, following the construction of a road," Bakht Khan said. Many such families were asked to leave during the expansion of the IJ Principle Road.
These victims of circumstances come out of homes before the sun rises. "We have to wake up well before morning prayer so that we can find stuff. Delay will mean, scores of kids like us will readily collect it," Zardad Khan said. He represents many unfortunate street children who for one reason or the other, have to lend financial support to their families or earn for their own survival.
His father, in early 50s, is a labourer. He often prefers to sit back home and enjoying smoking marijuana. He tells his children to shoulder his responsibilities as much as they can. He shifted from tribal area five years back for a better future for his family, but fell prey to addiction.
Children are our future. Therefore, younger generation has to be specially taken care of in any civilised country. Is this golden approach applicable to our society? One may not find an encouraging answer to the question. For, despite much-trumpeted policy on how to protect abandoned children and those who are compelled to financially support their families one way or the other, their number is increasing.
Today, according to a United Nations agency estimate, over 1.2 million (street) children are between 4-15 years age, most of these unwillingly have to spend their lives in streets, exposed to ailments and even sexual exploitation.
In a country, where over 40 percent of the 160 million populations comprise such children, things are not very pleasant for those who have sympathies with street kids. Besides, scavenging, they employ various means, including, selling combs, cheap edibles, car-washing and dishwashing.
It was disturbing to see a ten-year-old girl begging at a traffic signal near Khyber Plaza, as a car, bearing a diplomatic numberplate halted on Tuesday. What impression do such hapless children leave on other countries' representative is quite understandable.
A survey by Business Recorder revealed that majority of children's concentration is at Pirwadhai, Sadiqabad, Ratta Amral, Dhok Ratta, Banni and Raja Bazar. There are diverse dimensions attached to street children. They are easily and cheaply available for labour. They are usually forced to work overtime, but are paid lesser.
Likewise, they are not only maltreated, malnourished, but also reports appear in media from time to time about their sexual exploitation. Owing to these very serious problems, they often fall prey to social and psychological complications.
An official at the Edhi Centre in Rawalpindi said that in recent years, the number of street children had gone dramatically up. He blamed inflation, price spiral and big families among the poor for this alarming trend.
Edhi centres throughout the country take care of thousands of such children, thanks to continuous gracious donations by philanthropists. More than 1,000 non-governmental organisations are active on papers in the country, striving to promote human rights and alleviate human sufferings. Are not they duty-bound to play their part in rehabilitation of street children?
By curtailing foreign trips of the president, prime minister, ministers and lawmakers, and adopting austerity at official level, significant funds can be earmarked and transparently channelised to address this problem that is the enlarging stigma on the nation, commented the Edhi centre official.
He concluded by saying that one is not be optimistic about the government opting for judicious use of national exchequer, as even perhaps the biggest humanitarian disaster ie the last year's earthquake failed to change its mindset.