Missing : Where is Humara Ghar?

A report published by The Express Tribune a few years ago revealed that Karachi, the country’s largest urban metropolis, is home to more than 50,000 children living on the streets. Most of them are said to be embroiled in a life of drug usage, petty crimes, and a cycle of abuse.

Ever since then, despite the government’s efforts to aid these street children through child protective laws, not much seems to have changed in the last four years.

The Sindh Street Children Shelter Home 2018 Act was one such edict that vowed to protect the country’s most vulnerable segment, establish shelters for them and promote their welfare until they turn 18 years old. Under this law, the government had touted establishing Hamara Ghar, which was supposed to be its take on shelter homes for street children, with access to all imaginable amenities, across every district of the province. However, as of now, five months into the year 2022, not a single facility like such can be found anywhere around Sindh, no board of directors has been constituted for the implementation of the law and the province’s street children continue to battle the rough and tumble of the unforgiving streets every day.

All talk, no show

Per the 2018 law, the Humara Ghar project was to be managed by a public-private partnership, in collaboration with organisations bringing years of relevant management experience to the table. “All basic amenities including education till grade 10, sports and recreational facilities, vocational training centres, and basic health units will be available inside the Hamara Ghar shelter home,” the law had then advertised, while also highlighting gender segregation within its premises. “The government shall be responsible for the welfare, education, health and all other amenities for the street children until they have attained the age of 18 years or they become self-sufficient,” it further added.

The salient feature of the bill further spoke of a board of directors to run the affairs of Hamara Ghar shelters and take all the needful decisions. The board was to consist of a minister of social welfare, two members from the provincial assembly nominated by the speaker, a retired judge (not less than a high court), a retired armed services person (not less than a rank of colonel), a retired bureaucrat equal to the rank of secretary, a serving or retired doctor or psychologist of grade 20 or equal, a seasoned media person with good repute, a banker or economist, a serving or retired social scientist and an eminent scholar with uncontroversial status in the society.

The chairperson of the board was expected to be apolitical, of credible reputation, and nominated by the board within 30 days of its establishment, per the law that also defined the mechanisms for the project’s budgeting, auditing, and accountability processes. “Any person who harasses or harms children living within Harama Ghar will be punished with imprisonment for a term, which shall not be less than six months, and a fine of Rs100, 000,” further warned the 2018 law, assuring a safe haven for the province’s street children.

The law had also anticipated the formation of the rules within 30 days of the bill’s approval, following which the much-touted Humara Ghar project was to be materialised. However, to date, the project has not seen the light of the day while crimes against and those constituting street children continue to be on the rise.

The risk grows

A policy brief released by the National Commission on the Rights of Children has highlighted that in larger cities, children are at risk of exploitation by criminal networks that force them to beg. The policy statement available with The Express Tribune further reveals that the government remains inactive in the face of the powerful criminal networks, and district administrations have yet to develop an effective and workable strategy to take action against the real perpetrators of such crimes.

The brief further added that although each urban context differs, street-connected children commonly engage in a range of survival activities on the streets including begging for alms, rag-picking, or vending small items to fulfill personal or family needs. “In such pursuits, they can suffer both physical and sexual abuse at the hands of employers, with little recourse or protection from the police. In cases where the police are perpetrators, it leads to a lack of trust. The phenomenon of ‘street-connected children is growing with extreme urban poverty, which has worsened during the pandemic,” the report maintained.

Speaking in this regard, Iqbal Detho, who is a child rights activist, was of the opinion that Pakistan’s problem is not the dearth of (child protective) laws but rather the latency in implementation of such laws. “The constitution also guarantees fundamental rights to all citizens including children and it contains specific prohibitions against torture and elimination of all forms of exploitation. Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Sindh Vagrancy Act, of 1947 was the first legislation in any territory of Pakistan to condone such practice. And we have the Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act, 2017 and Sindh Children Act, 1955, but all these laws continue to remain confined to books with little impact in the real world,” he told The Express Tribune while lamenting the status quo.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2022.