PESHAWAR: Children play in a fortified building that is tightly guarded by smartly dressed security guards. The building belongs to Zamung Kor, or Our Home, which was established to help homeless and street children by the provincial administration of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in 2016.
Most education facilities in the city strengthened their security after the December 2014 terrorist attack that claimed the lives of at least 130 children at the Army Public School. Last December militants also targeted Peshawar’s Agriculture Training Institute, causing multiple casualties.
Inside the secure walls of Zamung Kor is a school, kitchen, dormitory, mosque, playground and offices for administrative staff. While some children landed in the facility after losing their parents, others have arrived for different reasons.
Seven-year- old Hamad and his two brothers have lived here since their father killed their grandmother during a domestic dispute.
“The lives of these three children are also at risk since their father killed his own mother,” said Omar Ali Shah, a social organizer at the facility. “The man also tried to kill his wife since she was a witness to his crime. Currently he is at large.”
According to Amjad Ali, acting manager of the facility, the shelter has 156 street children from various KP districts. He said that all the children were enrolled up to fourth grade, adding that the facility would soon have to introduce fifth grade classes.
Reham Khan, KP’s ambassador for street children, told Arab News that although Zamung Kor was her idea, the provincial administration was not doing enough to handle the issue of street children.
“The problem can be resolved if the government bans child labor,” she said.
“In most cases, if the parents of these children have employment opportunities, they may not send their children to work. Many of them would prefer to educate them.”
She claimed that almost 2,126 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in KP during the first six months of 2016. Her organization, Reham Khan Foundation, runs a computer lab for street children in Mingora, a maternity care center in Havelian, and is also establishing computer labs in Matta and Gilgit-Baltistan.
“Our center in Chillas will provide computer courses and vocational training to street children,” she said.
In 2010, the former provincial government passed a Child Protection and Welfare Act, which called for the setting up of child protection units in all 25 districts of the province.
However, the deputy chief of KP’s Child Protection Commission, Ijaz Mohammed Khan, said that these units existed only in 12 districts. He said that the facilities had served 29,000 street children since they began operating in 2011. Authorities had also set up a child protection helpline for the province.
According to the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), Peshawar has about 5,000 street and homeless children. The organization houses 60 children.
Sohail, who supervises SPARC’s lone child care center in Peshawar, said the government and NGOs were doing little for street children due to lack of resources.
He said that there were an estimated 1.5 million street children across the province.
A non-profit organization, Baacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation, has set up 15 schools across KP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to educate street children.
Dr. Khadim Hussain, the foundation’s managing director, told Arab News that his team ran a campaign every year to find child laborers and beggars by visiting bus terminals and other public places.
“We don’t provide shelter to them, but we educate them for free,” he said.
Azmatullah, who manages Dost Guloona Day Care Center, said they have 17 children, including some from Afghanistan and others districts from KP.
“There’s a mafia exploiting street children at bus terminals,” he said. “Sometimes, even the police can’t act against them.”
However, superintendent of police city Shahzada Kaukab Farooq said that his department was aware of the problem. “There may be some cases of street children’s abuse,” he said. “But our teams conduct raids at bus terminals and act against those who exploit these children.”
Jamaat-e- Islami’s Al Khidmat Foundation has also set up six child protection centers for street children in KP districts.
The foundation’s KP manager, Wajahat Mehmood, said: “Besides our orphanages, our six child protection centers house 250 street children.”
Chairwoman of KP’s Standing Committee on Social Welfare, Dina Naz, said that there was no plan in the annual development program to set up more child protection units in the province.
“Zamung Kor was established by the incumbent government,” she said. “It is a major child protection center and serves the needs to street children from across the province.”
Asked if the provincial government wanted to set up more centers, she said: “Our current budget does not have any allocation to set up such facilities.
However, we have done something positive for these children by establishing Zamung Kor. Now, let us see what the next government will do for them.”
Campaigners demand greater care for street children
Campaigners demand greater care for street children
