Azad Foundation’s intended direct beneficiaries include the following:
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has adopted the term “children in street situations,” recognizing that children engage in numerous activities on the streets and that if there is a “problem” it is not the child, but rather the situations in which s/he finds her/himself.
Azad Foundation scopes this group as children who live and/or work on the streets including children of homeless families and those who beg without any adult. The key differential from other children is the absence of adult supervision during the time these children spend on the streets.
There are approximately 1.5 million Children in Street Situations in Pakistan.
Following are the sub-categories of Children in Street Situations:
Living: Children who run away from their homes and live and work on streets fall in this category. These children are 24/7 on the streets and have no connection with their families. They are most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Reasons behind leaving home include poverty, domestic violence, corporal punishment, and peer pressure.
Working without supervision (highly vulnerable): Children who come to work on the streets, 10 to 14 hours a day, fall into this category. Usually, their parents send them to the streets to find work like garbage picking, un-bonded labor, car washing, or selling items at signals. These children are very much at risk of developing strong street connections and one day leaving their homes to live on the streets. Generally, they are not part of an organized working system.
Working with supervision: Children belonging to this category are as same as the children belonging to the children who work without supervision, but there is one stark difference between the both i.e., children in this category work under the supervision of their parents or an employer. As a result of which children working under supervision are less vulnerable to exploitation.
Following are the sub-categories.
Homeless: Children of homeless families is a new and growing category in Pakistan. Their numbers spiked especially after the earthquake in 2005 and subsequent natural disasters and the war on terrorism that forced millions of people to migrate from northern areas of Pakistan to large metropolitan cities in order to find refuge. They are as much at risk as working children since they also roam the streets and develop similar connections while being unsupervised by an adult.
Beggars: Not all beggar children fall under children in street situations. Only those who are begging unprofessionally, are without adult supervision, and spend at least 6 to 8 hours on the streets are considered under this category. They are also vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation and abuse, especially the girls.
At-Risk Children: These are children who are not living, working, begging, or in a state of homelessness on the streets. They are part of poor, underprivileged, and marginalized communities where poverty rule and their access to education, health, hygiene, and opportunities to a better life is minimal or next to none. They are out of school and spend most of their time out of their homes without any adult supervision or guidelines. They are very susceptible to turning towards drugs, being exploited, and one day becoming a part of the streets. We estimate that there are almost 8 million children living in such communities/slums in large metropolitans of Pakistan.
Azad Foundation is now working with at-risk children in 7 districts in Sindh to prevent the next 2 million children from street situations.