M. Sameer Nazir
KARACHI: DevCon-An Association for Rural Development, child rights-based organization has been working for the protection and promotion of the rights of the child, re-united two runaway brothers with their parents after three weeks. The children hail from Khairpur mirs. They mysteriously escaped from home and reached at Karachi. The project mobilization team of DevCon saw the children at Cantt station and identified them. They are living and working as street children. Our team mobilized the children and asked from their address and residence as well.
Karachi is largest city of country in the context of Population and area. City is also called economical hub of country. Mosely mode of travel of street children is train. Trains begins and ends at Karachi. Due to economical hub and charming of city street children travelled to Karachi and so for it is called city of street children.
Shafique Kandro DevCon’s child protection officer for street children said we has been working for street children in Karachi by providing them Non-formal education, life base skill education, recreational activities, birth registration and run mobile child protection unit with Social Welfare Department and other districts of Sindh as well with Social Welfare department to establishing Child Protection Units to promote and protect the rights of children.
He added Children on the streets are susceptible to all kinds of violence and easy prey for all types of abusers. Being young, poor, illiterate and defenseless, children are abused and exploited, sexually, verbally, emotionally and psychologically. Violence could range anything between harassment to paedophilia, sexual abuse and sodomy, coerced to join gangs of criminals and used as drug traffickers or turned into beggars by the beggars’ mafia.
Seema Nazli focal person from Social Welfare said to media Currently Social Welfare informed to media currently we are running 13 CPU and 2 more under contraction moreover one huge building under contraction at korangi to address the street child issues were we will facilitate more 250 children at a time we also have a help line 1121 to facilitate common person regarding child protection cases.
Seema said DevCon is our close partner and working with our coordination in various district of Sindh for improving child protection indicators.DevCon informed us about this case our team at Khairpur with support of DevCon Khairpur office find father of these runaway children and today we happly re-unifying them.
Rehmat and Bisharat (13 and 14 years) runaway children’s parents found from Khairpur mirs with the support of social welfare department’s child protection unit (CPU) khairpur.
Moreover, father of the runaway children, having eight children and recently converted Muslim from Christian, told that children are badly involved in drug addiction and beyond my control. He appeals to the concern authorities for rehabilitation of his children.