The welcome address was given by Ms. Afshan Tehseen, Chairperson of the NCRC, who drew attention to the invisibility of street children and shared her own experience of working with them over the years. Madeeha Ansari (Founder, CfC) shared the findings of the policy brief in detail and talked about the importance of ensuring every child has the right to a childhood. Susan Andrew (Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF) applauded the rights-based approach adopted in the policy brief. Other distinguished panelists included representatives from civil society as well as the media.

Madeeha Ansari (CfC Founder)

Click here to read the full policy brief on street-connected children.

The policy brief launch is a huge milestone in our journey towards making sure street-connected children be seen, heard and counted. Our engagement with policy-makers began exactly a year ago on International Day for Street Children, 12 April 2021, when we organized a National Parliamentarians Consultation to start a conversation around adopting a rights-based approach towards street-connected children in Pakistan. Since then, we have been engaging with civil society as well as government to address the pitfalls of the current system and developing policies that best suit the issues on hand.

The next steps involve a call to action on implementing the policy brief and partnering with policymakers to make sure the recommended steps from the brief are turned into policies to bring a real system-wide change.  

Afshan Tehseen (NCRC, Chairperson)

Some of the key recommendations that were pointed out included reviewing and amending relevant federal and provincial legislation affecting street-connected children, removing barriers to formal schooling such as the requirement for B-forms and age-related barriers, expanding the availability of drop-in spaces or non-residential facilities and establishing a case management system.

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by Madeeha Ansari, Founder

CHILDHOOD is a precious, fleeting experience. As we navigate our way through the most extraordinary time in living memory, one of the most important things we can do is to remember how this time will define the earliest memories for an entire generation, growing up in the ‘new normal’.

To understand what the Covid-19 crisis has meant for children from all socioeconomic backgrounds requires stepping out of our shoes and into smaller ones. To varying degrees, it has meant: No school. No friends. Fear of hugs. Stressed adults. Sibling care. More time. Less time. The trauma of unexplainable loss affecting people in inner as well as peripheral circles, and an invisible terror that pervades every space, spares no one — and is seemingly without end.

The reality of phenomena like ‘no school’ translates into learning losses from which it may take years to recover. A study of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake by the Harvard LEAPS project found that four years after the disaster, children who had missed three months of school were 1.5 years behind where they should have been. Since students were behind the curriculum when schools reopened, they continued to fall further back. The story of education during the pandemic has not been a uniform one; those for whom digital options are not viable have struggled to keep learning, and will continue to do so unless low- or no-tech options are truly strengthened.

However, there is a radical argument to be made even for children who are soldiering on with access to Zoom: perhaps we need to be worrying them less, and giving them more space to play. Schools are closed and we urgently need to think about mitigating imminent learning losses. But there is one big missing piece in the conversation in Pakistan: children’s learning is affected by multiple factors, one of which is well-being. There is a lot of science to support the positive impact of happy, playful experiences on brain development for young children; they can provide respite from the stressors of everyday reality, and can help build the resilience to keep coping and hoping.

What has the crisis meant for children’s well-being?

Let’s then take a closer look at those who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Children in fragile households are experiencing even higher levels of vulnerability. Those at risk of being forced into child labour are experiencing higher push factors from families whose livelihoods are impacted. Those who were already vulnerable to abuse are facing increasing risks due to stress faced by adult caregivers — evidenced by more calls to children’s helplines globally. In India, calls went up 50 per cent during the height of lockdown, reporting cases from violence to child marriage. Compounding these are real fears surrounding the virus, which may have a lasting psychological impact. The motivation to engage with learning and return to school, particularly for those already at risk of dropping out, will be even lower than before.

In June, the Ministry of Human Rights launched a directory of organisations for reporting abuse. There have been a number of other significant steps in an incredibly short time span: a bill to declare domestic labour hazardous for children, and the convening of an official National Commission for the Rights of the Child. In its first public message, the NCRC stated, “it is adamant that the child be given the environment that is needed to raise a productive citizen”.

If we care about creating that environment — making sure children are going to school, learning all they can and able to be their best selves — it is crucial to remember that this environment also includes social, mental and emotional well-being. The lens of well-being is a powerful one that can impact all aspects of the Covid-19 response and what comes after.

Public service messages, for instance, need not only include an emphasis on masks and handwashing, but can actually be tailored to help both adults and children with coping, even teach adults to support children better. Teleschool broadcasts could incorporate a similar dimension, and take a more structured approach to boost resilience. A big part of a return to school should go beyond basic literacy and numeracy, to enabling teachers to be supportive attachment figures especially for children facing difficult circumstances at home. And a common thread running through these would be the provision of playful experiences for children to cope better — and emerge stronger.

Protecting children’s rights can seem like a massive undertaking when there are so many structural factors threatening them. Protecting childhood may seem like an even more elusive idea. However, if we are able to step into smaller shoes, simple solutions will suggest themselves as we walk through this extraordinary time.

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By Madeeha Ansari, Founder

A COUPLE of years ago, I visited a drop-in centre for street children in Peshawar as part of a mapping exercise. The children there were generally ‘of the street’, i.e. they did not return to their families or homes. The programme manager explained how many of them would travel between Islamabad and Peshawar, and at the time, they were particularly excited to be part of the PTI dharna.

Such political engagement was not too surprising. In some ways, it resembled the participation of street-connected children in the Arab Spring. In Egypt, they were termed the ‘revolution’s smallest soldiers’, as they would show up at the front lines, braving the violence to feel like they were part of something bigger. The public movement — democratised by the streets — held the promise of food, camaraderie and a sense of belonging.

It was a moment to celebrate, then, when Prime Minister Imran Khan gave some of his youngest supporters the dignity of recognition in his inaugural address. “Street children are our children,” he said, extending the promise of an invitation to children who otherwise stand on the margins.

For those interested in human rights and development, it seemed like the time had finally come for the national conversation to shift to human security by addressing the vulnerabilities of the individual in order to achieve longer-term peace and prosperity, and sparked something like hope.

However, it was also a moment to pause. Advocacy agendas can take on new life in the hands of a powerful champion, which would not otherwise be possible in spite of the diligent efforts of child rights workers over decades. There is an opportunity in the sudden sparking of national interest, as well as a risk. ‘Street children’ cannot be a buzzword.

In order to ensure that things are done well, it’s important to understand the nature of the challenges. According to the Wilson Centre, Pakistan is urbanising at the fastest rate in South Asia. Already it appears that about half the urban population lives in katchi abadis, or informal slum settlements. These include Afghan refugee communities, those who have been internally displaced by disaster or conflict within the country over the past few years, as well as economic migrants coming in from rural areas. A most difficult aspect of working with communities that are undocumented and often seen as ‘mobile’ or ‘transient’, is that their existence in cities may be in conflict with the laws of municipal authorities.

‘Street children’ itself is an umbrella term, encompassing a wide range of young people who may or may not have links with these informal urban communities. In the child rights world, the term increasingly used is ‘street-connected’, meaning children who depend on the streets for survival — whether they live on the streets, work on the streets, have support networks on the streets, or have some combination of the three. Children exposed to the streets experience a range of vulnerabilities that are different from what they would experience in rural areas eg the risks of abuse, neglect and exploitation by criminal or militant groups. Economic pressures mean they must choose between work and school.

Pakistan is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the underlying principles are non-discrimination and the best interests of the child. Non-discrimination means that no one gets left behind — even those who live in the sprawling settlements that exist as an inconvenient truth. The best-interest consideration means that solutions need to be tailored by listening to children whose stories and experience are not uniform.

If the plan is to have more and better protection facilities for street-connected children, that will be welcome. However, the task is far more complicated than setting up brick-and-mortar structures. While physical protection matters greatly, particularly for those who are vulnerable to both physical and sexual abuse on the streets, what happens inside those walls is of critical importance. The quality of services can really determine the trajectories of the young people who enter, and how they will interact with the world when they leave. It is also important to consider where the children will go from there, and whether their families are in a position to support their return.

The issue of street-connected children cannot be viewed in isolation; there are drivers and stressors that bring them where they are. The ‘urbanisation’ of poverty is a dilemma that much of the world is struggling with, and solutions require some bold and dynamic thinking. Perhaps the present government, with its reform-oriented agenda, can be the one to take it on.

Time will tell what the tangible outcome of the prime minister’s promise will be. For now, the first significant step has been taken: children who were invisible have finally been seen.

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