“The approach that is taken towards street children is either as victims or delinquents…viewing them as rights-holders is going to take a whole shift in perspective.”

Cities for Children’s work

The first part of the conversation was an introduction to Cities for Children’s work. Cities for Children was set up with a rights-based approach, to support organizations working with street-connected children and build programs around learning and wellbeing.

CfC’s work to support the Right to Childhood knits together three strands of child rights:

• The Right to Read – through programmes like Seekho Sikhao Saathi (Partners in Learning), with Big Partners teaching Little Partners within their communities and forming beautiful bonds, throughout the COVID-19 school closures.
• The Right to Play, especially through structured recreation and community volunteering programmes like Hansti Basti (Happy Hoods). 
• The Right to Feel Safe – psychosocial support and positive mental health. Most recently, CfC’s Maar Nahi Pyaar (Care not Scare) campaign was launched around the time the Anti-Corporal Punishment legislation was being pushed in the Islamabad Capital Territory. Maar Nahi Pyaar resources provide practical alternate strategies and positive caregiving tools that parents can use in place of corporal punishment.

Street Children and COVID-19

“There are some rights that children are entitled to no matter who they are and where they come from.”

The conversation then turned to how pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on communities in urban poverty, leading to an increasing number of children on the streets. There are several great elements to social welfare programmes like Ehsaas, including incentivising parents to send children – especially girls – to school. But when it comes to “street-children,” there is not enough conversation about who they are and the communities they come from, which means they often fall through the cracks.

A dominant narrative is that street children are sent by gangs or mafias – which may be true in some cases, but it is important to understand individual stories and the multiple identities that a child may have. Whether from a refugee, internally displaced, stateless or migrant community, lack of formal documentation often impedes access to rights. Lack of legal rights also makes street children vulnerable to exploitation and harassment.

Madeeha spoke about the massive impact of Covid-19 pandemic and learning losses for children, especially for those on the other side of the digital divide. She emphasized that now is the time to be innovative – benchmarks, especially around assessments, need to shift to give children the support and reassurance they need when they are eventually coming back into schools. 

Policy-making with children

“It’s not just about asking (children and their families) what they want, but saying ‘How can we support you?’”

Article 12 of the UNCRC says that children have a right to be heard in matters concerning them – and in order to make policies that work, it is not only important to consult them but also understand where they come from. Madeeha highlighted the importance of the UN General Comment No. 21 on Children in Street Situations for organisations working in this area, and stressed on the need to incorporate street children’s voices in all discussions about them

“How is it that we can support street children to go to school, and remove the barriers they face? How is it that we can better protect them and their best interests? How can we take this opportunity to build strong child protection systems?”

The Rights Podcast Series explores issues related to human rights in Pakistan. It is an initiative of the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) at the Research Society of International Law, Pakistan (RSIL), an independent, non-partisan think tank based in Pakistan. The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) is a dedicated Centre conducting research on international and domestic human rights issues, raising awareness and building State capacity in Pakistan.

The podcast can be heard on the link given below.

The post Living on the Margins: Street Children in Pakistan – RSIL podcast series appeared first on Cities for Children.

By Madeeha Ansari

IN an interview for April 12, International Day for Street Children, a young girl spoke of her life with a smile. Her grandparents lived in the same abadi where she was born, and where she now lives with her uncle — who does the same kind of labour as his father before him. She used to beg, like her grandmother, but after a night in prison and decision by a tearful uncle, has stopped. She used to go to school, but doesn’t anymore. Why? She is asked. She just doesn’t, she answers with a shrug.

The story of intergenerational poverty, shrugged off, is common. It is replayed in each of the interviews with children having connections with the street, living in ‘informal’ urban settlements, sometimes for decades. For some, the story has gotten darker with the pandemic, with families sliding deep into debt. While many started work early to support their households — by about age seven or eight — formerly economic activities were often built around school hours. Now for children falling further behind without access to digital options, the possibility of returning to education seems remote.

The theme for this year’s international day was ‘access for street children’ — but the path to real options is strewn with obstacles. The first, perhaps the greatest, is a lack of understanding of who ‘street children’ are. The dominant narrative remains that they are either victims or delinquents, associated with gangs or mafias. Vagrancy laws carried down from the 1950s reinforce stigma and legitimise their temporary removal or detention, but this still doesn’t lead to long-term answers.

In reality, street-connected children come from diverse backgrounds including refugee, displaced and economic migrant communities. Often they lack the documentation that is key to accessing services. With invisibility comes vulnerability to harassment and exploitation. Some are unaccompanied, but many have families and parents who do love them — and some (by no means all) do fall into the hands of criminal groups. So, to design solutions, step one is to acknowledge complexity.

A second step would be to review existing laws and their implementation. One is Article 25-A which affirms the right to education for every child, without discrimination. To really get this for street-connected children means investing in community outreach, and working with organisations that understand their challenges and know how to tailor solutions — accelerated programmes, creative learning opportunities and components perceived as useful, including vocational training.

Then in terms of child protection, there is an opportunity right now to shape laws that are currently at different stages at the provincial level, and also determine how they will be operationalised. There have been plans to expand protection and shelter facilities, which should be safe spaces where the best interests of the child are paramount. At no stage should these become akin to detention facilities — something that can be avoided by putting in provisions to consult children and their families about their future, and to review cases on an individual basis.

A useful framework for formulating policies for street-connected children is UN General Comment No 21 on children in street situations. This emphasises a holistic, rights-based approach to address both prevention and response in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The opening paragraph contains quotes from street-connected children, one of which is “Give us the opportunity to change our story.”

Several opportunities can exist, if we want them to. Some may lie in social welfare programmes like Ehsaas, which has elements offering support to families and incentivising education, especially for girls. When it comes specifically to street children, however, there is a need to recognise the gaps in social protection mechanisms, see who falls through the cracks — and how they can be filled.

Then there is the possibility of cooperation to create and implement rights-based laws. On April 12 this year, the Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari reiterated a commitment to street children that was first made by the government in the prime minister’s inaugural address. Her words were important because they defined justice as access to basic rights — health, education, protection. They were also important because it was in conversation with Mehnaz Akber Aziz, the MNA with whom there was most recently landmark cooperation transcending party affiliations, to pass legislation against corporal punishment. In that conversation, for a brief moment, hope seemed very much alive.

Every year, we celebrate international days to remind ourselves of what needs to change in the world. Maybe, by next year, we can give street-connected children in Pakistan more of a chance to change their story.

The post Changing the story appeared first on Cities for Children.