Call to check rise in number of street children

Executive Director, NGO-Pahchaan and Coordinator of a project "Bachay Sab Day Sanjhay" Sarah Asad, while expressing grave concern over sudden surge in the number of street children in the provincial metropolis of Lahore, has called upon the government as well as people to play their due role to check the problem of street children.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Tuesday, Sarah maintained that the children usually leave their homes in desperation on account of worsening socio-economic conditions, weakening of joint family system and tendency of poor parents to put their children on workplaces against their wishes.
Every night, around the Data Darbar shrine, a number of ragged boys lie on bedding of torn sheets and dusty sacks, beneath the gilded minarets of the shrine. The boys, most aged 8-15, sleep close together for safety and comfort. Most of these children take dinner from the shrine's Langaar Khana, she pointed out.
She averred that according to a survey conducted by her NGO there is surge in the number of runaway children. Most of the runaway children earn their living as scavengers, selling the empty bottles, canes and paper they collect each day. Many of the street children face serious psychological problems, sometimes cutting themselves with razors, alongside skin infections, sexually transmitted diseases and problems arising from 'glue addiction', she pointed out. Most of the street children suffer respiratory problems or stomach complaints because of this addiction, she added.
She was of the view that the problem of street children is becoming serious, calling for immediate 'action plan' by authorities concerned to overcome the situation. She urged the government to take immediate notice of the problem of street children so that society could be saved from harmful results.
It may be mentioned that in late 1999, a psychopath, Javed Iqbal, wrote in to national newspapers claiming he had murdered 100 street children, and then dissolved their bodies in acid.
Though the deaths were never proven, the recognition by the victim's families of their clothing, carefully preserved by Iqbal, and the failure of any of the boys, all photographed by Iqbal before their deaths, to turn up, suggest the claims of the man who became known as the country's most notorious serial killer, may well have been accurate. Javed committed suicide in mysterious circumstances at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail two years after handing himself into police custody in 2000.
Sarah further said that the project-Bachay Sab Day Sanjhay is holding a seminar on the topic of 'key stakeholders' role in protecting street children' at a local hotel on May 15 at 3 pm Dr Naeem Zafar, Salman Malik will address while there will be screening of a documentary on street children.