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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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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