streetchildren Archives – Cities for Children

LAUNCH: CfC and NCRC Policy Brief on Street-Connected Children

madeehansari@gmail.com — Wed, 04 May 2022 11:18:31 +0000

We are proud to announce the launch of the policy brief on street-connected children in Pakistan in collaboration with the National Commission on the Rights of the Child (NCRC) and UNICEF, on 21st April at Margalla Hotel, Islamabad. The event was attended by over 150 guests including activists, civil society and government officials, as well as senior journalists. It was widely covered by broadcast as well as print media – the collated links to print media coverage from Dawn News, Gulf News and more is available here.

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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Policy Meets Practice: Discussion Recommendations

madeehansari@gmail.com — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 12:03:14 +0000

by Josh Adetunji, Projects Volunteer

On 3 and 4 August 2020, Cities for Children organised two consultations with civil society members and government titled ‘Policy Meets Practice,’ with the aim of addressing challenges faced by street children in Pakistan. The Consortium for Street Children defines street-connected children, or “street children”, as children who depend on the streets to live and/or work and who often have strong connections to public spaces as part of their day to day lives. A number of challenges faced by street-connected children in Pakistan were identified by the organizations in attendance at the event and actionable solutions were put forward as recommendations for policy makers.

Street-connected children are often neglected and left to fend for themselves; their thoughts and opinions are often unheard and ignored. How can we truly address their challenges without understanding what they are? This is counter-intuitive, but policy is often looks down and overlooks the voices of the most vulnerable in society, sometimes exacerbating the issues.

A child rights approach calls on all relevant stakeholders to incorporate the perspectives of street connected children in any policy-making process that can impact their lives. The recommendation was for policy makers to review relevant legislation surrounding street children and examine them through a child rights lens as offered by the UN General comment No.21 on Children in Street Situations.

Many street-connected children belong to refugee, displaced or mobile communities who often do not have the requisite identity documentation to access services like public education, healthcare, bank services etc. Obtaining this documentation retrospectively is a difficult process. A lack of identification documents can be a great hindrance to street children’s participation in mainstream education and economic activities.

Partners like SPARC and Pehli Kiran Schools shared their experiences on the issue. Without, for instance, birth certificates, children are prevented from accessing education and this eventually contributes to high dropout. There is a need to streamline and simplify the process of obtaining identity documents, a measure which would allow more children to attend school.

Every child has a right to an education. However, in order to sustain themselves and their families, children may have to look to create income from the streets. Street-connected children may no longer see the benefits of attending school for their children once they begin supporting their family financially. Policymakers must partner with civil society organizations to engage with parents directly, understanding their needs and wants, while also incentivising education. Such grassroots activities can allow families not only to understand the long-term benefits of education but also the short-term gains. Working directly with the people most affected allows us to truly understand their circumstances so that all the relevant stakeholders can work towards systemic changes.

Street-connected children are especially vulnerable to physical, psychological and sexual violence. Every child has the right to be safe from cruelty and harm. Therefore, policymakers should look to strengthen the child protection system. Furthermore, authorities must make sure legislation and processes embody a do-no-harm ethos, installing protocols for duty bearers such as the police who handle vulnerable children to hold them accountable for their actions.

A continuum of care would mean following up with families after reunification processes, so that children do not end up back on the streets. The creation of drop-in spaces for children to learn and to play in safety is an important step to creating alternatives to the street.

Poverty affects people in many different ways. The conditions that street-connected children grow up in can potentially force them into potentially dangerous situations such as taking on labour that threatens their safety and wellbeing. It can also leave them vulnerable to violence and trafficking.

We call on policymakers to work with families to create alternatives to sending children into hazardous labour, or to work on the streets. This could include access to social protection and welfare programmes like Ehsaas being extended to communities in urban poverty; or creating sustainable solutions such as access to micro-finance for enterprise and livelihoods. Creating stronger financial foundations for families and providing opportunities for children to continue education could allow them to finally break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

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Policy Meets Practice – Planning Action for Street Children

madeehansari@gmail.com — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 10:41:04 +0000

Cities for Children along with the Parliamentary Special Group on the SDGs and Child Rights organised a multistakeholder consultation on 3rd and 4th August, bringing together parliamentarians, civil society organisations and relevant representatives from human rights, social welfare and child protection. This was the last event in CfC’s advocacy for street-children series, supported by the Consortium for Street Children. The event brought various stakeholders from child protection agencies, NGOs, the Ministry of Human Rights and the parliament together with the aim of ensuring that policies for “street children” are rooted in their reality.

Chaired by MNA Ms. Mehnaz Akber Aziz, Convenor of the Special Committee on Child Rights, the event on August 4 also featured Ms. Sarah Ahmed, Chairperson of the Punjab Child Protection and Welfare Bureau and Special Coordinator to the CM Punjab, who shared her ongoing work with unaccompanied and abandoned children as well as those found begging on the streets. Mr. Hassan Mangi, Director General of the Ministry of Human Rights, shared his experience in formulating long term prevention strategies supporting communities to keep children with families off the streets, beyond residential care facilities.

Dr. Rozina Khalid from the Ehsaas programme expressed a commitment to reaching children in urban poverty, and supporting them to access their rights through programmes like “Waseela-e-Taleem.” This was expressed as a priority by all civil society organisations present, who shared that one major obstacle to accessing social protection was a lack of identification documents for urban poor communities. Facilitating access to an identity for the diverse communities that street children come from would be a major step towards guaranteeing their rights, and this may demand creative solutions.

The event on 4 August came after a full day of brainstorming between civil society organisations facilitated by Madeeha Ansari from Cities for Children and hosted by the Society for the Prevention of the Rights of the Child (SPARC). Participating organisations included the Lahore-based Search for Justice Pakistan and Child Rights Movement with extensive advocacy experience; Sahil, with experience in child protection; and the Pehli Kiran Schools that serve children from katchi abadis in Islamabad. Iftikhar Mubarak, from Search for Justice Pakistan, shared experience in terms of child protection and juvenile justice legislation at the provincial and federal level which informed the collective recommendations. He reiterated the need for an action plan at the provincial level so that efforts for the challenges faced by street children could be coordinated and strategized.

The recommendations generated and shared by civil society with policymakers included a review of current laws and practice in light of UN General Comment No. 21 on Children in Street Situations, which offers comprehensive guidance on how to apply a rights-based approach rather than approaches that cast children as either victims or delinquents. In terms of education, there is need to move forward on actual implementation of Article 25-A and notification of laws. Mr. Hassan Mangi stressed that roles and responsibilities needed to be defined at the district, tehsil, provincial and federal level to ensure coordination and accountability of all groups involved. The reccomendation also identified a role for civil society to partner with government in terms of reaching out to communities and working with them to offer tailored services. For protection, there is also a need to move forward with and formulate rules of business for child protection laws e.g. in ICT and Punjab – but also, a need to establish protocols and safeguarding processes for all those involved in a child protection response. Ms. Sarah Ahmed described the Punjab Child Protection and Welfare Bureau’s efforts on this front and stated that the bureau was pushing for child protection policy in Punjab in the next few months.

Interest in the issues was shown by parliamentarians Mr. Riaz Fatyana and Ms. Nafisa Khattak, and the Ministry of Human Rights has offered support for formulating a plan going forward. Overall, the event helped create a bridge between policy and practice. As Ms. Rizwana Akhtar from Sahil shared, “we now hope that the voices of street children are heard.”

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Living on the Margins: Street Children in Pakistan – RSIL podcast series

madeehansari@gmail.com — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 15:05:29 +0000

On 8th May, 2021, Minahil Khan, senior research fellow at the Research Society of International Law sat down with Madeeha Ansari, the founder of Cities for Children, to discuss the state of street children in Pakistan on the fifth episode of ‘The Right’ podcast series. The discussion attempted to explore the challenges faced by street children, what needs to be promised to them and how organisations can move towards fulfilling those commitments.

“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.

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Mythbuster: Street Children in Pakistan

madeehansari@gmail.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 15:33:49 +0000

By Hajra Khan, Research Intern

On World Children’s Day 2020, we are committed to a future where the #VoicesofYouth are amplified and understood. In the spirit of representation, Cities for Children conducted a “mythbuster” campaign to tackle some of the misperceptions that exist regarding street-connected children in Pakistan. Our hope is to help build a future in which street-children are counted, seen and heard.

While some children in street situations may be vulnerable to recruitment and exploitation by gangs, “street child” is not a monolithic identity. Some may be unaccompanied children “of the street,” but as urban poverty rises, an increasing number of street-connected children find themselves “on the street” to earn for themselves and their families, who they return to. This phenomenon is only growing due to the pressures created by the COVID-19 economy, with high unemployment as well as rising prices.

Society tends to alienate and stigmatise the “street child,” particularly criminalising their survival actions. Children on the streets are often stigmatised for being there, being treated as a nuisance or being labelled a “menace.” The language used to describe them and what they do often does not take their lives, their background and their own agency into account, either using a frame of victimisation or of criminalisation.

Let’s take the time to understand where street-connected children come from, and what pushes them onto the streets. Not all of them have the same story!

Although street children are exposed to a number of dangers on the street; they are often highly resilient individuals who have learnt to develop apt survival skills. Street children actively build connections and friendships in order to earn a living for themselves and at times for their families.

It is important to understand that street children should be able to exercise their right to participate and to be heard, as specified by Article 12 under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Otherwise, policies created for their own benefit may end up being a less effective use of resources.

Research suggests that children forcefully removed from the streets will eventually return. They are used to practicing their independence, and are often distrustful of law enforcement agencies, as they or their families may have in the past faced harassment from the authorities as evidenced by the UNICEF Street Children Evaluation Report[1]. In addition, they may lack appropriate support in facilities set up for their own protection and may exhibit behavioural issues that present challenges for staff without adequate training.

While a large majority of street children are indeed boys, there are a number of girls who work and live on the streets as well. At least 10 percent of street-connected children around the world are girls. Gender matters, and risks for girls and boys can differ.[2] Reports by the Consortium for Street Children have stated that “Girls experience high levels of violence on the streets, including verbal abuse and physical and sexual assaults”^[3].

Poverty and financial constraints are the primary “push factors” for children to seek income generation activities on the streets. This can mean that parents face difficult choices, and often have to choose between schooling and work for their children. This does not mean that parents do not care or have their children’s best interests at heart, or would not respond positively to viable alternative options. According to the UN General Comment No. 21 on children in street situations, it is important to “help parents or caregivers to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities and with respect for the evolving capacities of the child, the living conditions necessary for the child’s optimal development”.[4]

Cities for Children takes a rights-based approach towards children and communities in urban poverty, by which we hold certain economic, cultural and social rights to be inalienable for all. We believe that every child has the right to a childhood – the right to read, to play and to feel safe. In order to provide these rights, we have a duty to understand and address the realities faced by street-connected children, and design solutions that work for all.

[1] UNICEF Street Children Evaluation Report: https://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/files/CP_Street_Children_Evaluation_Report_Final.pdf

[2] Consortium for Street Children: https://www.streetchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CSC_Myth-Busters_FINAL1.pdf

[3] Consortium for Street Children: https://www.streetchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CSC_Myth-Busters_FINAL1.pdf

[4] General UN Comment No 21: https://www.streetchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/1-07fc61ac163e50acc82d83eee9ebb5c2/2017/07/General-Comment-No.-21-2017-on-children-in-street-situations.pdf

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A Case Study of Refugees in Towns – Islamabad, Pakistan

madeehansari@gmail.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 11:46:27 +0000

The following research piece entitled Cities for Children: A Case Study of Refugees in Towns – Islamabad, Pakistan, was first published by the Refugees in Towns project of the Feinstein Centre, Tufts University, September 2019. It is a unique reflective case study drawing upon personal and professional experiences, exploring the lived reality and education-based challenges of Afghan refugee children in Islamabad.

CITIES FOR CHILDREN: A CASE STUDY OF REFUGEES IN TOWNS, ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

Author: Madeeha Ansari

Cover photo: Female students leaving an open-air Pehli Kiran School. All report photos by Mobeen Ansari with Cities for Children.

INTRODUCTION

Over the past four decades, Pakistan has experienced several waves of refugees due to recurring conflict in neighboring Afghanistan, as well as repeated internal displacement caused by complex emergencies within the country. It has hosted one of the largest refugee populations in the world—4 million at its peak—and in spite of efforts to facilitate return, is still home to about 1.4 million registered refugees.[1]

Although designated “refugee villages” were created by aid agencies to accommodate large numbers of refugees, many chose to live and work in cities. The capital city of Islamabad has seen refugee populations enter and leave multiple times since the 1980s. As of June 2018, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had registered 33,286 Afghan refugees in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).[2] However, it is widely recognized that the numbers of unregistered refugees as well as internally displaced persons (IDPs) are far greater.[3]

This report looks at the integration experiences of Afghan refugees in slum areas of Islamabad, particularly in the neighborhoods of F-11 and I-10 (see Figure 2). Drawing from my own experience working with street-connected children, it presents stories to illustrate the obstacles to integration for those lacking formal legal status, especially in terms of education. Finally, it highlights good practices that would improve the refugee experience of education, including wellbeing as a consideration for mobile children in cities.

The Author’s Position in Pakistan and Experiences Researching this Report

I was born and raised in Islamabad, living there until the end of high school and then returning as a young professional. My mother tongue is Urdu, the local language that many refugees, after protracted displacement, now speak or understand. I was part of the first generation “belonging” to the relatively new city. I watched it grow from a quiet, contained capital to one experiencing the challenges of rapid urbanization. During this time, I have observed how perceptions of Afghan refugees have evolved, and how these perceptions have affected their everyday lives.

Islamabad is a hub for development in Pakistan, with agencies across the aid spectrum. After returning from my undergraduate studies, I started working concurrently for a think tank and a small trust called Jamshed Akhtar Qureshi Education Trust operating a network of non-formal, open-air schools in multiple slum areas. This meant stepping outside my comfort zone and becoming immersed in the lives of Afghan communities in urban and peri-urban settlements: the way they interacted with other communities; the options they had in terms of accessing services; and the barriers to integration.

I was able to explore—and formally articulate—my interest in education for forcibly displaced communities during my graduate studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and later while setting up the non-governmental organization (NGO) Cities for Children. This document is a cumulative result of the academic and professional experiences related to education for refugees.

For more on the methods used for this case report, continue to Appendix A.

[1] See UNHCR country pages, https://www.unhcr.org/pakistan.html, https://unhcrpk.org/who-we-are/.

[2] See UNHCR operational portal, https://data2.unhcr.org/en/country/pak.

[3] While this is widely accepted as true in the city, the unregistered are not in official counts and they move around, so exact numbers are not available.

LOCATION

Islamabad is situated in South Asia, a region with highly porous borders and large movements of people, settling and resettling throughout Afghanistan, India, Iran, and Pakistan as conflicts and economic opportunities ebb and flow. Click the map to learn more about the region, and read more RIT cases from the region.

Continue to the appendices for more information on the methods used for this report, and for background on refugees in Islamabad and Pakistan.

A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY

“Refugees” as used here includes unregistered families, those having Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, as well as those who have been able to access Afghan Citizen cards since 2017. Afghan Citizen cardholders are no longer classed as refugees/persons of interest by UNHCR, as they are seen as migrants seeking education and livelihoods. “Refugees” is used as an umbrella term in this report because most of these individuals came to Islamabad before 2017, and while the new PoR card offers some legal protection, the report findings apply to most Afghan people who live in urban poverty. The report does not address the integration issues of IDPs, although recurring internal displacement is a challenge for Pakistan.

A NOTE ON SCOPE

The report is limited to a discussion only of the integration experiences of Afghan refugees living in urban poverty, primarily in slum settlements. Many other Afghan refugees live in middle- or high-income households and have had different experiences of the city.

MAPPING THE REFUGEE POPULATION

Islamabad was constructed as a purpose-built capital city in the 1960s, when the seat of government was moved from the port city of Karachi. It is laid out in a grid structure, with each developed “sector” having schools, markets, and green belts. Slum settlements are not recorded on the official maps but have sprung up in existing green belts.

Specific points of interest for refugees include:

Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) and UNHCR head office;
The head office of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), which holds the database for identity cards;
Proof of Registration (PoR) Card Modification Centre (PCM) in Rawalpindi, where PoR cards can be modified/renewed and births can be registered;
Offices of international humanitarian and development organizations coordinating with UNHCR to offer services, e.g., Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and ICMC. Among other services, ICMC offers safe shelter for individuals referred by UNHCR, including survivors of gender-based violence and children at risk;
Legal assistance project office of the Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP), a local implementing partner for UNHCR.

Two areas of interest in terms of livelihoods are:

F-7 Markaz, where refugees can be small vendors selling “Afghani chips” or jewelry as well as larger shop-owners;
Sabzi Mandi, a wholesale fruit and vegetable bazaar.

While services have clustered in downtown Islamabad (upper right), residences have sprawled into informal settlements and “former neighborhoods” (shaded blue). Map by author. Base map imagery © Google 2019. Click map to enlarge.

Some neighborhoods that were previously densely populated by Afghan families have been highlighted on the map. One was known as the “Afghan Basti” in Sector I-11, close to the Sabzi Mandi market (highlighted on the map in blue). This neighborhood was demolished by municipal authorities in 2015.[4] Another is the green belt of Sector I-12, a recognized settlement where 3,000 Afghan individuals were relocated with the support of UNHCR in 2009. According to interviews with NGO staff, one result of ongoing repatriation efforts[5] is that there are few openly majority-Afghan settlements. While many families have relocated to Afghanistan, others have scattered across the city.

[4] For this demolition, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) cited a court-authorized drive against illegal settlements that allegedly bred crime and terrorism—allegations for which evidence was not provided.

[5] See Appendix B, “Refugees in Pakistan,” for more details.

THE HOST POPULATION AND INTEGRATION

During the Soviet-Afghan war (December 1979 to February 1989), Pakistanis welcomed Afghans with hospitality and a sense of kinship. Particularly in the mountainous northern territories, refugee families were able to easily integrate into Pashtun society due to a shared language and culture.

Given its geographical proximity to the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Islamabad was the second-most significant urban center to receive refugees after Peshawar. However, unlike KP, Islamabad is ethnically diverse. Over the decades, there has been a shift in the perceptions of Pakistanis towards refugees. Attitudes have become reserved or even hostile as host communities began to see the spillover effects of the neighboring conflict on the local economy, culture, and polity.

In Pashtun culture, the concepts of “Melmastia” and “Nanawati” represent hospitality and asylum, and are among the six basic principles of the social code, Pashtunwali. When Afghans first entered Pakistan they experienced “Melmapana”—open hospitality extended to those who arrive at the doorstep without first being extended an invitation.

While some in urban society do hold more empathetic views towards people of Afghan origin, today, many Pakistanis in Islamabad link refugee presence with the proliferation of Kalashnikovs (rifles), narcotics, and violent extremism. They blame regional politics for Pakistan becoming a route for the regional illicit opium and heroin trade. The pressures of hosting a large refugee population, in spite of substantial international aid, have also become a source of tension. National government-level politics have shaped attitudes too; in recent years, relations between the Afghan and Pakistani governments have deteriorated, and there has been a push for refugee return. Current public attitudes are reflected in the populist reaction to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s announcement in September 2018 of the possibility of citizenship for Pakistan-born refugees. One step towards better integration in 2019 has been financial inclusion; for the first time, Afghan refugees holding PoR cards have been able to open bank accounts. However, their status is still insecure. In the face of public outcry and political backlash, the issue of citizenship has not yet been taken up in Parliament.[6]

[6] For more on identity, see Appendix B, “Refugees in Pakistan.”

A FOCUS ON EDUCATION

Education is a fundamental right, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. For children whose lives are disrupted by emergencies and displacement, education can be a source of stability.[7] Education serves a protective function by meeting cognitive and psychosocial needs, and helps young people access livelihoods and pathways to a better future.[8]

“The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.” Article 25a, Constitution of Pakistan (2010).

The government of Pakistan has committed to providing education for all.[9] There are several categories of primary and secondary schools for Afghan children in Pakistan:

Registered public schools;
Registered private Pakistani schools (for middle-high income households);
Private Afghan schools registered with the Ministry of Education Afghanistan, through the Afghan Embassy/Consulates (for middle-high income households);
Refugee village schools supported by UNHCR;
Non-formal schools, including those run by non-profits;
Madrassahs (religious schools).

However, there are barriers to education for both Pakistani and Afghan children, and Pakistan has the second-highest population of out-of-school children in the world. This is because of lack of adequate school facilities and trained teachers. For Afghan refugees, there are numerous barriers in accessing education, particularly for those who are unregistered. As a result, according to UNHCR, the literacy rate of Afghans aged ten and above is 33%.[10]

UNHCR has a range of education programs for refugees in the 54 refugee villages, through which 57,000 refugee children access primary-level and sometimes secondary-level education.[11] It also provides tertiary-level scholarships to 400 Afghan refugee youth through the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI).[12]

Shoes arranged outside informal school. Click the photo to expand.

Compared to the designated refugee villages, the urban educational experience is different for the majority of refugees. Non-camp refugees and IDPs often lack access to mainstream schooling and rely on non-formal or religious schools. UNHCR’s new education strategy aims to address this gap by extending support for public schools in areas of high refugee density.

[7] See Kirk, 2011.

[8] See Dryden-Peterson, 2011.

[9] From 2010 onwards, Article 25a of the Constitution affirmed the right to free and compulsory education for all children in Pakistan regardless of origin. In November 2012, the Islamabad Capital Territory passed a bill guaranteeing the fundamental right to free and compulsory education to every child regardless of sex, nationality, or race.

[10] UNHCR Pakistan, 2017.

[11] UNHCR Pakistan, 2018.

[12] Ibid.

[13] UNHCR Pakistan, 2017.

EDUCATION AND IDENTITY

Legal status affects refugees’ ability to apply for educational opportunities. Even after decades of living in Pakistan, there are no laws for refugees, and the reliance on temporary international agreements makes their status insecure. The citizenship status of the second generation is still “Afghan,” and there are no pathways to Pakistani citizenship.[14] As a result, large numbers of unregistered refugees live under the official radar in Pakistan’s cities, with little access to formal housing, sanitation, and education services.

The following stories and testimonies from young people illustrate the challenges for refugee education and integration in informal settlements or “katchi abadis.”

[14] See Appendix B “Refugees in Pakistan,” sub-section on “Integration and attitudes of host population” for more details.

A CHILDHOOD STORY

As a child in the 1990s, I had regular contact with refugees in everyday life. At the time, their presence was simply accepted as a reality of the city’s businesses and culture. In the markets, there were shops selling Afghani carpets and Afghani jewelry, silver/metallic accessories inlaid with semi-precious stones like lapis lazuli. “Afghani chips” were crinkle-cut potato fries sold at street stalls in small newspaper bags, with signature spices and chutney. An Afghan vendor sold Afghani chips at my high school and was a rival to the official canteen. One day, the boys in my class came back with their trigonometry problems solved during the lunch break. It turned out that the man selling fries had been a professor at a university in Kabul. His degree was not recognized in Pakistan. Like this Afghan professor, refugees often lose their national-level certification when they cross into a host country. Unless provisions are made to recognize this, they often have to start from scratch in terms of livelihoods, education, and identity.

A “katchi abadi,” or slum settlement. Click the photo to enlarge.

EDUCATION INTERRUPTED

Many families have moved between Pakistan and Afghanistan several times, disrupting their children’s education. Ali Khan[15] started out in the Pehli Kiran non-formal education system, which he attended until Grade 4 (age nine or ten).[16] Then his family moved back to Afghanistan, and he was able to continue classes in Pashto and Farsi, the local languages. When his family moved back to Pakistan again, Ali needed to repeat some classes, again in the non-formal system as opposed to a mainstream school. After completing primary education in English and Urdu, he was lucky to be enrolled in the local government school. There he tested well, and instead of Grade 6, was offered a place directly in Grade 9.

Ali’s experience of interrupted education followed by an accelerated non-formal program places him among the more fortunate. Many whose schooling is disrupted are more unlikely to return to school, especially if they move between academic systems in different languages. Schools in Afghanistan recognize the Pakistani system of education for children who are repatriated, but a transition back into a Pakistani school is not as straightforward.

[15] Pseudonym.

[16] Actual ages in grades may vary considerably.

GENDER AS A BARRIER

According to UNHCR, in Punjab (and ICT) only 20% of school-going-aged girls were enrolled in schools.[17] Afghan girls face a host of practical and cultural constraints in accessing schooling, including lack of gender-segregated facilities and trained female teachers. Distance is also a factor; if girls have to travel, even in densely populated urban contexts, they often do not get permission to go from male family members. One girl from an Afghan family provided written testimony about her experience:

Female students leaving an open-air Pehli Kiran School. Click photo to enlarge.

I am the first girl in my family to study further. When I passed Class 5 in PK-4, my brother did not accept that I would study in another school. The teachers of PK-8 talked to the administration to add Class 6 to the school. When Big Madam agreed, the teachers came to our house to talk to my brother. My brother accepted, and I am now studying in Class 6 in PK-8. — Gul Bibi[18]

Many girls like Gul Bibi are forbidden to access a mainstream secondary school by a male family member. Gul Bibi continued her education through an extension of the non-formal school in her community after a mobilization effort by staff. In most situations, these are not options, and girls fall out of the educational system.

[17] UNHCR Pakistan, “Mapping of Education Facilities,” 14.

[18] Pseudonym.

ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS

Even when access to educational services exists, the economic pressures families in katchi abadis experience lead to high dropout rates—as early as age eight or nine—when children start working. Afghan children in katchi abadi neighborhoods work to pick through trash, particularly to find and sell metal items, or as fruit and vegetable vendors. In one school, attendance dropped on Thursdays because the boys would be helping their fathers sell produce in the local bazaar. A smaller number drop out after gaining apprenticeships at local mechanic workshops rather than continuing to secondary school. Erratic attendance impacts learning outcomes, which negatively affects motivation to attend school.

RISKS FOR THE UNREGISTERED

EXPLOITATION AND HARASSMENT

One of the Pehli Kiran schools in Sector I-10 served undocumented refugees in a mud settlement hidden from view from the main roads. The school shed served multiple community purposes, including weddings. The legal status of the families meant that they were constantly at risk of exploitation as well as harassment. A local cleric used his connections with the police to threaten the community and sought to expand his mosque by encroaching on land occupied by the school shed. In spite of this pressure, a Jirga meeting was convened.[19] All the men of the community attended and collectively decided in favor of the school. The story illustrates the high value placed on education by underserved refugee communities and the obstacle that police harassment presents to integration. Fear of harassment was cited as a major reason why Afghan families opted to return to Afghanistan in 2016.[20]

[19] A Jirga is a traditional gathering of elders to make decisions by consensus based.

[20] Conversation with UNHCR staff.

TENSION WITH MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES

Lack of legal status means refugee in slum areas typically lack housing security, even though settlements may have existed in the same location for decades. In recent years, there has been a crackdown by the Capital Development Authority (CDA). In February 2014, a court ordered municipal authorities to clear the slums in Islamabad. A month later a double suicide bomb attack in the district courts increased the government’s motivation to act; no evidence of a link was provided, but slum areas were perceived to be unregulated havens harboring terrorists. In April 2014, the I-10 settlement where the community had voted in favor of keeping the school open for their children was demolished by the CDA. The children and their families were given no alternative housing and were dispersed to different parts of the city.

View of a “katchi abadi,” or slum settlement. Click photo to enlarge.

Slum demolition continued through 2015. However, during this time an unprecedented political movement gained foothold in the city. The All Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis emerged as a platform for organized protest by inhabitants of informal settlements across Islamabad. Brought together by the efforts of the left-wing Awami Workers’ Party, this Alliance garnered enough attention to bring an official halt to demolition at the end of 2015. Currently, tensions with municipal authorities are continuing for slum-dwellers of different ethnicities.

BUREAUCRATIC OBSTACLES

Education in Pakistan is a right, not a privilege, and Afghan children should be able to access education without facing bureaucratic hurdles. This has not been their experience. Ali Khan[21] was determined to continue his education in spite of the challenges of urban poverty and disruption caused by migration:

In the morning, I would work as a laborer and go to school in the evening. My father was very poor. He could not afford my education…After passing Class 5, I wanted to study more and continue education in a government school. However, things were very bad then, and I faced many difficulties in gaining admission. When my father went to get me admission in a government school, they said we can’t give you admission without a No Objection Certificate (NOC). I was told to go to the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) to get a NOC, then I would be able to get admission. In fact, they sent us to D block SAFRON Ministry and said we had to get an Afghan Citizen card and a letter from the school where you first got education. The school prepared all the relevant documents and (a teacher) also went to the FDE, Interior Ministry, SAFRON Ministry, and Police Foundation with me to get me a NOC and admission.

This experience was at a time when the government and UNHCR were encouraging registration for Afghan Citizen cards. To go through the steps of obtaining an additional NOC is time-consuming and can be a prohibitive factor for families for whom lost time equates to lost income. The right to education for all exists on paper, but there are significant bureaucratic hurdles for Afghan children trying to enter oversubscribed mainstream schools. [22]

[21] Pseudonym.

[22] In Islamabad, UNHCR researchers working on education mapping in 2017 were not able to gain access to public schools—even telephonically—without the approval of the Federal Directorate of Education. This approval was not received in spite of several follow-up attempts (UNHCR Pakistan, “Mapping of Education Facilities,” 12).

CITIES FOR CHILDREN

Even when refugee children from slum communities gain access to schools, barriers to learning remain. They lack support at home due to time, knowledge, or resource constraints on the part of parents. The chronic stress of urban poverty takes a toll on all family members, with children experiencing neglect and often emotional and physical abuse. These factors affect their performance as well as behavior at school. During a workshop of the NGO Cities for Children that brought together mental health professionals and teachers, the teachers discussed their troubles dealing with behavioral difficulties, especially without corporal punishment. Boys from Afghan and Pashtun communities often demonstrated aggressive or hyper-masculine behavior, and the only strategy the teachers saw for dealing with it was violence. There was a problem of school refusal too: children sometimes ran away from class, particularly if there were attempts to discipline them.

Cities are challenging places for children, and schools should represent an opportunity for integration and for building the resilience of street-connected children. The teacher can be an important attachment figure, supporting refugee students, and school-based programs involving socio-emotional learning can improve behavior and academic performance, while also promoting positive mental health.[23]

[23] INEE, 2016.

LOOKING AHEAD

LEGAL RECOGNITION

Recent efforts to register births and provide Afghan families with the chance to claim an identity have had some impact in Pakistan. Legal recognition of status entails recognition of human rights and of children’s right to education. However, for unregistered families to have the confidence to come forward, they need the reassurance that they can retain the choice to live in a country that many have come to call home. For the second generation, it is the only home that they have known.

EDUCATION AND INTEGRATION

Urban settlements in Islamabad are loosely organized according to ethnicity, as people from similar backgrounds tend to cluster together. Within the open-air schools, Afghan, Pakistani, Pashtun, and Punjabi children are sometimes divided along linguistic lines, with students speaking the same language preferring to sit together. Education can be a powerful force for integration. It provides the opportunity for host and refugee children to interact as peers and share the experience of learning and growing. Play-based interactions and learning within the school space can additionally aid integration by blurring the lines drawn by ethnicity and class.

A curriculum designed to support integration can promote the ideals of peace and tolerance, as well as an appreciation for diversity. It can challenge notions of male dominance and promote better gender equity. Teaching might be arranged such that students are not partitioned by linguistic group, to allow normalization and social cohesion to build. Access to secondary and tertiary education can further provide adolescents and young people with opportunities to contribute positively to their households and to participate in broader society.

A USEFUL EDUCATION

For Afghan children facing the challenges of urban poverty in Islamabad, unhindered access to quality education would provide the opportunity to overcome vulnerabilities and to build true durable solutions for their families. Skills that would be useful to focus on as part of education for both documented and undocumented Afghan children include the following:

Language skills. Fluency in Urdu helps overcome barriers to local communication, and English is the language of social mobility. English skills are particularly useful if young people return to Afghanistan. Languages are offered in most schools but can be challenging for children to learn if parents are not fluent. Language barriers can affect their performance in all subjects.
Vocational skills. Many children living in katchi abadis are pushed to choose between work and school at an early age, and time spent at school is seen as loss of income. The perceived and actual value of time spent at school would be higher if they were able to gain access to technical skills:

“For us Afghan children, along with education it is important to learn skills, because we are from poor households. By using these skills, we can increase our income and improve our economic situation, e.g., through computer courses, driving, and electrician courses, etc. If Afghan families go back, then along with education it is important for them to have skills they can use and contribute to the prosperity of their country.” — Ali Khan
Socioemotional skills. Beyond literacy and numeracy, children in urban poverty also need spaces where they can gain respite from daily stressors. There is a strong case for creating play-based programs that build socioemotional skills for children, as well as their resilience to cope with difficult circumstances.

One example from Cities for Children is the “Happy Hoods” project, which equips local volunteers to build socioemotional competencies like self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills. The programs involve discussion and extracurricular activities, based on the premise that “happy memories build resilience” for vulnerable children. The pilot programs were conducted with a school and drop-in center for migrant children, with the aim to scale up to reach refugee populations. At the end of the pilot, staff reported improvements in confidence and interpersonal skills, with shy children coming forward and speaking up, and higher general motivation to attend school.

CONCLUSION

The integration of Afghan refugee children in Islamabad will continue to face obstacles, including police and municipal government harassment, financial barriers, insecure housing, and limited legal protections. However, educational efforts that improve language abilities, build vocational skills, support connections across populations, and build social skills may help improve wellbeing and integration.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the students and team from the Pehli Kiran Schools, in particular Managing Trustee Sabira Qureshi and Operations Coordinator Ghazanfar Ali for support in the research; Wali Kandiwal for his comments; and Usama Khilji, Director of Bolo Bhi, for his feedback.

About the Author

Madeeha Ansari

Madeeha@www.citiesforchildren.co

Madeeha is currently spearheading the non-profit Cities for Children, which seeks to protect the “right to a childhood” for street-connected children—the right to read, play, and feel safe. Cities for Children partners with other organizations to provide services to children from refugee, internally displaced, and migrant communities on the margins of urban society. Previously she worked with open-air schools for mobile children, Save the Children, and the Malala Fund. She has written on issues of forced migration for leading newspapers and think tanks in Pakistan, as well as for international blogs. Madeeha completed her master’s degree as a Fulbright scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and earned her undergraduate degree at the London School of Economics.

REFERENCES

Dryden-Peterson, S. (20110). “Refugee Children Aspiring Toward the Future: Linking Education and Livelihoods,” in Educating Children in Conflict Zones: Research, Policy and Practice for Systemic Change, edited by Sarah Dryden-Peterson and Karen Mundy, 85–100. New York: Teachers College Press.
INEE. (2016). “Background Paper on Psychosocial Support and Social and Emotional Learning for Children and Youth in Emergency Settings.” Available at: http://s3.amazonaws.com/inee-assets/resources/161114_PSS_SEL_Background_Paper_Final.pdf
Kirk, J. (2011). “Education and Fragile States,” in Educating Children in Conflict Zones: Research, Policy and Practice for Systemic Change, edited by Sarah Dryden-Peterson and Karen Mundy, 15–32. New York: Teachers College Press.
UNHCR Pakistan. (2017). “Mapping of Education Facilities and Refugee Enrolment in Main Refugee Hosting Areas and Refugee Villages in Pakistan.”
UNHCR Pakistan. (2018). “Fact Sheet.”

APPENDIX A: METHODS

For this report, I relied on my personal and professional experiences while working for non-formal schools in slums around Islamabad, and while setting up Cities for Children, a non-profit to address the wellbeing of street-connected children. The report draws on personal, in-depth contact with approximately 250 refugee children at two non-formal schools from the Pehli Kiran School System (PKSS); a focus group discussion with 15 mothers from a slum community; and written responses of 4 pupils to a questionnaire. I would like to acknowledge the cooperation of the schools’ management team in facilitating the written responses.

In order to obtain a fuller picture of available services, I also conducted key informant interviews with the following people:

A staff person formerly at the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC);
Two representatives from UNHCR Pakistan;
Two representatives from the International Rescue Committee.

To compare the experiences of non-camp versus camp refugees, I talked to an Afghan researcher who was educated in a refugee village. Information about practical challenges was obtained from informal conversations with staff from the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) as well as staff and teachers from the Pehli Kiran school system (PKSS). I gleaned insights about the host population from informal conversations with residents from Islamabad in group settings, as well as from social media responses to policies for Afghan refugees.

APPENDIX B: REFUGEES IN PAKISTAN

The largest ethnic group of refugees in Pakistan is of Afghan origin. Historically, Pakistan shared a porous border with neighboring Afghanistan—the Durand line—where tribes could cross without passport or visa restrictions. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970s, Pakistan experienced an influx of refugees fleeing violence and became host to one of the largest refugee populations in the world. Movement continued during the Taliban regime, and a second wave of forced movement occurred after the invasion of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2001–2005. At its peak, the number of registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan was estimated at 4 million. Non-Afghan refugees are from Somalia, Iran, and Iraq. See Table 1.

Click table to enlarge.

Despite hosting one of the world’s largest refugee populations for over 40 years, Pakistan is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and has not adopted any national refugee legislation. Since 2003, there has been reliance on a tripartite agreement between UNHCR, Pakistan, and Afghanistan that formally establishes voluntary repatriation as the durable solution for Afghan refugees. The timeline for return has been periodically extended, as return has been fraught with challenges.[24]

Afghan refugees in southwest Asia have experienced the world’s most protracted displacement. The majority of Afghan refugees live in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (58%); 2% live in Islamabad Capital Territory.[25] Out of the registered refugees, 32% live in designated “refugee villages,” which are located primarily along the borders with Afghanistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The remaining 68% have long been settled in rural, urban, and peri-urban areas.[26] A large proportion of the Afghan population was born and raised as a second generation in Pakistan.

Out of the registered refugees, 39% are school-aged children between five to eighteen years of age.[27] Within the refugee villages, only 30% of the total school-aged children were enrolled in school.[28] This number drops further for refugee families settled elsewhere.

REGISTRATION AND REPATRIATION

A UNHCR-funded repatriation program for refugees was initiated in 2002, but conditions in Afghanistan were not conducive for voluntary return. Since then, there was an effort to document refugees and issue PoR cards, which temporarily provided the legal right to stay. PoR cards originally set to expire at the end of 2015 have been extended several times since then. In 2015, there was a greater push towards return from the Pakistani government, with revised incentives from UNHCR. The numbers of repatriating families have fallen in 2018.

As of June 2018, there were 1.4 million registered refugees in Pakistan (see Table 2). Unregistered refugees are still estimated to be between 600,000 to 1 million.

Table 2: Afghan Refugee Population in Pakistan since 2002

Source: UNHCR. Click table to enlarge

There was an additional drive for registration of undocumented families of Afghan origin in 2017 and for the issuing of Afghan Citizen cards. These help to protect cardholders from arbitrary arrest, detention, and deportation, and give the option of applying for visas to stay on as students or families. However, Afghan citizens are not considered “persons of interest” by UNHCR, as they are not categorized as seeking asylum but as having migrated for other reasons, e.g., livelihoods opportunities.[29]

In order to address the challenges that Pakistan was experiencing as a host country, from 2009 the government partnered with a Consortium of UN agencies to initiate the Refugee-Affected and Hosting Areas (RAHA) Programme. One goal of this program is to promote social cohesion and coexistence by addressing challenges such as access to livelihoods and education.

[24] Original tripartite agreement available here: https://www.refworld.org/docid/55e6a5324.html

[25] UNHCR Pakistan, “Mapping of Education Facilities.”

[26] Ibid.

[27] Ibid., 25.

[28] Ibid.

[29] From telephone conversation with UNHCR staff members Faisal Azam Khan and Uzma Irum, September 13, 2018.

APPENDIX C: REFUGEES IN ISLAMABAD

As the seat of the government and bureaucracy, Islamabad is not associated with any other provinces but exists as a federal territory. According to the 2017 census, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) houses a population of just over 2 million. It is often associated with the older city of Rawalpindi as a “twin city,” and the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area is the third largest in Pakistan, with a population of more than 4 million.

Islamabad also has some of the fastest growing slums in the country, as informal settlements have grown in the absence of affordable housing. These are populated by ethnically diverse communities including rural migrants from Punjab province, Pakistani Pashtuns, and Afghan Pashtuns.

The post A Case Study of Refugees in Towns – Islamabad, Pakistan appeared first on Cities for Children.

Those empty streets

madeehansari@gmail.com — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:03:18 +0000

A personal reflection on International Street Children Day in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, by CfC Founder Madeeha Ansari.

A view of a downtown market is seen empty during restrictions due to COVID-19 situation in Karachi, Pakistan, Pakistan, March 20, 2020. The vast majority of people recover from the new coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization, most people recover in about two to six weeks, depending on the severity of the illness. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

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Karachi,Pakistan, March 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Today was the International Day for Street Children. It passed, unmarked, barely ruffling the stillness of these days of quarantine. In this, the strangest time in living memory, it is hard to be stirred by anything beyond the heightened consciousness of ones own fragility.

The war has come home.

It has swept the world in a quiet wave, pushing over the foundations of the lives we took for granted. And while we wait in our fortresses surrounded by cloudy dread, it is of course difficult to spare space in our minds, our newsprint and our Twitter feeds for those who are invisible on a clear day.

But clarity matters. It’s important to know that those empty streets and stillness come at a price. Not all have the security of fortresses, and everyone needs to care. Like it or not, this is a war that we really are all in together.

Why care now?

(Photo: Mobeen Ansari for Cities for Children)

Street-connected children are those who live on the streets, work on the streets or depend on the streets for survival in some way. So some have homes to return to, and some don’t. Many of the safe spaces they used to access, such as drop-in centres, are closed until further notice.

Social media has come alive with some trends that are repeated, because they are important. Here’s why #SafeSpacesForStreetChildren matter too:

#PublicHealth

Without access to information and adequate medical care, many children, young people and adults living in urban poverty are at risk of contracting and spreading coronavirus without even knowing. Contrary to initial observations, children too are affected by it – especially if they have low immunity. The danger of this insidious disease is that it can be carried without exhibiting any symptoms – which, for congested slum communities, can have exponential, catastrophic consequences.

#StayHome

Everyone agrees that the “smart” thing to do right now is to stay home. But what of those for whom the street is home? Children who experience homelessness or live on the streets are at risk of police harassment and of being detained in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. In places like Pakistan where prisons are already overflowing and that hazard is being recognised, the last thing we want is for street children to be criminalised.

#WashYourHands

The new rule is “at least” 20 seconds. But what about those who lack access to clean water and sanitation?

#SocialDistancing

When ten people are crowded into a single room, with ten single rooms in close proximity, this is hardly an option. Furthermore, families in lockdown conditions are under extraordinary stress, especially when livelihoods are being affected. The risk of unreported domestic abuse rising is a terrifying thought.

What then?

(Photo: Nargus Engelbrecht/AP)

There has been a rise in global generosity at this time, which is beautiful to see. Individuals and organisations are stepping up to provide monetary and in-kind support to families whose income has been disrupted and who will bear the brunt of this crisis. Government, too, has taken notice and there have been some historic efforts in terms of emergency support.

However, the wave seems to have swept away some of the principles that took a long time to build into good practice – for instance, looking at how vulnerabilities can differ according to gender and age. Perhaps the champions of those sensitive approaches are themselves under too much psychological and emotional strain to speak up, but they should be factored in so the impact of generosity is magnified.

It is important to see children, and for at least some of us to put them at the centre of what we are doing. Then we will be able to see their needs, and address them accordingly – in terms of disseminating life-saving information in ways that they can understand and practically apply; in terms of creating life-saving options for hygiene; and ensuring safe spaces for them to live.

Today was the first day of summer. Through the open window, the birds haven’t ceased their busy exchange; the blossoms are at their most dazzlingly proud. For so many, it has been a gentle war. But it is without end, unless we dare to care.

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Child Beggars

madeehansari@gmail.com — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 14:39:36 +0000

This article first appeared in Dawn, the oldest English newspaper in Pakistan.

By Madeeha Ansari, Founder

ON Tuesday, Nov 12, the Sindh government imposed a ban on child beggary, directing the social welfare department to ‘round up’ child beggars and place them in welfare centres, including in an upcoming facility in Korangi.

On one hand, this might be seen as an effort to deliver on the national government’s promise to better protect street-connected children, as I had written about earlier in this paper. Child beggary does indeed violate the fundamental rights that all children should have, in terms of being safe from harm and having the space and opportunity to achieve their full potential.

To some it may seem strange, then, that this announcement by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah raises some serious red flags. One of the biggest issues with the blanket ban across the province is that it does not acknowledge the complex factors that first drove children to the streets — or the factors that keep them there.

The megalopolis of Karachi is cruel to the urban poor. The proposed solution ignores the fact that street-connected children are not all the same, and are not all unaccompanied. Many have families to return to, from whom there should not be forced separation if the campaign is to be truly embedded in children’s human rights. There is real desperation, and real lack of economic opportunity, driving family choices that cannot always be fairly judged by people of privilege. Unless efforts are multipronged, with viable economic alternatives being provided so families can care for their own, children’s issues will not end with their removal from the streets.

Children who live on the streets — children ‘of’ the street — include many who have voluntarily run away from unhappy circumstances at home. They are among the most vulnerable to risks like sexual abuse and, for protection purposes, can also be drawn to joining larger groups or even gangs. If rounded up against their will, it will take special efforts and resources to ensure that they do not run away from institutionalisation.

The language of the announcement is also of concern. The report providing the rationale for the campaign cited Section 7 of the West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance, 1958, which prohibits beggary. This essentially lays the ground for the criminalisation of street-connected children — and for future harassment by law enforcement agencies.

There is a language of urgency pushing the campaign to ensure that no child will be visible with hand outstretched for alms. The minister for works has been directed to complete the Korangi Sweet Home ‘on war footing’. The question is, even if this is done, will current facilities have the capacity to deal with the results of the ban?

The idea of placing vulnerable children in a facility where they have access to shelter, food, sports and education is certainly born of positive intent. It seems like a holistic approach, incorporating the beautiful concept that play is an important part of childhood. However, perhaps now would be a good juncture to take stock of whether enough material and human resources are available to provide this.

The staff managing facilities have an absolutely critical role in determining the success of the concept. Their level of training and understanding regarding both the practical and psychological aspects of managing street-connected children will determine the success of the provincial government’s plan. It should not be a traumatic experience to be ‘picked up’ by a welfare agency. People who work with street-connected children spend a long time building relationships of trust so that the services they offer are accepted and genuine rehabilitation can happen.

In the development world, the term ‘theory of change’ is used to think about the kind of impact that an intervention is meant to create. While jargon is not always necessary, the idea is to go through the mental exercise of thinking through the desired outcomes of activities, the inputs or resources required, and simple ways of measuring progress. In this situation, it is essential to identify desired outcomes and impact. If the aim is to simply remove children from sight, there is a danger of this campaign becoming akin to a police operation. If the aim is longer-term rehabilitation, much deeper thinking will be required at the design stage.This is not to detract from the urgency of the issue: children exposed to the streets need attention now. Every experience they have in their daily lives informs who they are and who they are going to be. And the sooner they are able to access a safe, nurturing environment, the brighter their future can be. In the interest of doing more good than harm, however, the language of urgency cannot be the language of haste.T

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Promise for streetchildren

madeehansari@gmail.com — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:08:11 +0000

This article first appeared in print as “Street kids’ hope” in Dawn, the oldest English newspaper in Pakistan.

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.

Photo: Mobeen Ansari for Cities for Children

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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Colour and Joy – PKSS Annual Sports Day 2018

madeehansari@gmail.com — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 15:09:11 +0000

As part of our “Right to Play” strand of work, on 21st April 2018 we supported a special Sports Day event for over 400 children and parents from the urban slums of Islamabad. These are communities served by our partner, the Pehli Kiran School System, a network of open-air, non-formal schools in settlements across the city. They cater to nearly 1800 refugee or migrant children who often have to choose between work and education, and face a range of risks on the streets.

It was a day filled with colour and joy, as each of the eight schools chose a different colour to represent themselves. Hajra Khan, captain of the national women’s football team, was present as Chief Guest and helped distribute prizes. She represented a positive female role model for the boys and girls who participated with equal enthusiasm. Competition was tough, but the red team – Pehli Kiran School No. 8 – took away the trophy for the overall tournament.

The Sports Day was not only an opportunity for the children to showcase their talents and to proudly represent their schools but was also a chance to develop qualities like discipline and sportsman’s spirit. In addition, for the schools, it was a way of increasing engagement with the communities: both mothers and fathers were invited to participate in the games, and to help with organising the distribution of refreshments as well as the “clean-up” zone.

One of the games for the mothers was “Getting Ready for School,” which involved a simulated race against time to get their children ready for the day. This worked towards one overall aim of the event, which was to increase motivation for communities to continue sending their children to school.

Looking around at the happy faces, music and festivity, one of the participating mothers couldn’t hold back a smile.

“My heart is bursting with happiness at this sight,” she said.

We believe that “happy memories build resilience” for young people who otherwise face hardships that force them to make adult decisions far too early. Ultimately, the Sports Day was one in which community volunteers, students, teachers and parents were all brought together for a rare and memorable shared experience.

NB: We would like to particularly acknowledge the support of volunteers from Right to Play Pakistan, who gave generously of their time and created the video above.

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