Caring for children

The Punjab government has ordered free healthcare at all government hospitals for the children and teenagers housed at the Child Welfare and Protection Bureau (CWPB) in Lahore after a visit to the premises by the adviser to the chief minister on health. The adviser directed that any child housed at the bureau, which takes in homeless children from across the city, could be brought to the Children’s Hospital or any other government facility for treatment. It may be noted that many of the children of the CWPB suffer from various ailments due to neglect and life on the streets, while in the past, a drug addiction problem has also been reported amongst some of them. As staff at the organisation stated, the services of one doctor were not sufficient to offer the care these children need.

The step is obviously a welcome one. The point to be made, however, is that it is not only children at the CWPB who need better medical care. There are street children present in many places in Lahore. Most have no access to medical aid or other assistance and survive the best they can, taking shelter at shrines, marketplaces or street corners. In addition, even children living within their homes, because of sheer poverty, are often deprived of quality care. As a general rule, government hospitals should be providing this facility to every citizen in need. The fact is, this does not happen due to the poor state of these hospitals and the indifferent attitude of staff. Rather than just a specific group, it is the wider problem also that needs to be tackled.

While children at the CWPB certainly need the best that can be offered to them, they are, perhaps, better off than those who have no protection of any kind at all. The Punjab government must also look into providing this mass of children with the healthcare and other amenities they need to overcome various ailments and live a life of higher quality so that they can make their way ahead and rise above the conditions into which they were born and have been compelled to live because of the economic situation of their parents.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2014.

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