Street Children

1) Children who roam around the streets and alleys collecting things to sell

2) Children working in various trades, such as vending or auto repair shops.

There are few programs to help either of these groups of children, and both are vulnerable. In our daily life we can see street children collecting trash from houses and garbage dumps. They collect food (often eating what they find), plastic products, paper and boxes, or other trash to sell in the local market. Some work for a dealer, other collect trash on their own with friends. There are two worry about with these children. Of particular danger is unhygienic food collected, eaten and often taken to home for consumption by family members. The second danger comes from collected items from hazardous dumps, such as those near hospitals where they find syringes which can be resold, but which may pass on deadly diseases like hepatitis and AIDS.

All these children work in very dirty conditions, picking up unclean items, bones, paper and other items to sell at local market. Many will use the money to buy something to eat at the bazaar, watch Indian movies, and enjoy video games. They are also at risk as they enter into marginal activities like begging or minor smuggling, but others move into lucrative trades such as the sex trade, and many are at risk of drug addiction.

The opportunity for education is limited for most of the children on the streets and in workshops. Most of them left their studies, some after primary education, hanging on the streets doing odd jobs but not availing themselves of the opportunity of further education.

Many of the children interviewed in Hayatabad revealed that parents, especially mothers, are responsible for their taking on odd jobs. But the mother may have no choice in the matter. Her husband may not be able to adequately provide for the family (Because of poverty or other problems such as drug addiction) and this forces her to send the children out to earn money for the family. The children do what they can and are better at begging than adults as people tend to sympathize more with a young kid in tatters.

Street Children start their work early in the morning and go to different locations in the city to gather garbage up to 11 A.M. They are then free in the afternoons. Most of them claim to be interested in education, but they also stress the need to have some money of other things for their family. This means that normal school hours of the morning are not convenient for these children as their families depend on their income. Afternoon schools with some vocational training will be more to their liking and convenience. Prive differences across the border open up an opportunity for street children to smuggle home goods like kerosene oil, diesel, wheat flour, and other items. The local area with wealthy families also needs greater number of street children for cleaning up the streets. Many children note that school would not teach them any skills needed to work and earn money later. So they quit studies.

Street children in Hayatabad in Peshawar figure in this publication. We see them every day, but we often look away perhaps we need to muster some courage to look into the hearts of these children and think about their lives. They are our future, but they often see little hope.

They are woken up by their mothers early in the morning and sent to work for scrap collection.
They don't take breakfast in the mornings, and go out to collect papers, bones, plastic, iron, dry bread etc. from the rubbish drums, which are kept by government on the roadside for scrap and garbage.
They take out garbage from the houses and put in the drums on the roadside. Their wages is dry bread but sometimes they are given nothing for their service.
When these children go for scrap collection, most of them are without shoes.

Fatih Gul s/o Janat Gul

9 Years

Fatih comes from Kabul, Sarobi. He has been collecting scrap for four months. He collects paper, and empty packets of cigarettes that he sells in Karkhano. He earns 10 Rupees each day which go to his mother. He works in two shifts in morning and afternoon. Fatih cannot afford to go to cinema or have any other entertainment. He does not go to school but take religious classes. He takes breakfast at home and comes back at noon. After some rest, he goes for the afternoon shift. If he takes days off from work, his parents get angry at him.

Nisar Ahmad s/o Gul Muhammad

Tribe Zakhel

7 Years

Nisar's father works on daily wages. He has 4 brothers and 3 sisters. His brothers are not working. He goes for scrap collection early in the morning. He earns 20 Rupees each day. Nisar does not go to school and just collects scrap. He lives in Karachi Camp No. 2.

Those children are usually hungry and don't know that what is good and what is wrong so they eat rotten fruit and bread which they find in the drums.
If they find vegetables in the scrap drums, they bring them home and their family consumes these rotten vegetables.
They can earn between 20-30 rupees each day, which they give to their mothers

If these children get more money then they indulge in activities like cinema and video games.
These children are in the 7 to 15 years age group.
Schools are few and education is of little value.
These children don't go to school, and majority of the fathers is uneducated. They are unable to give a positive direction to their children's career.
Their clothes are dirty, they have little idea of personal hygiene and their health problems remain largely unattended.
Doctors state that most of these children have worms in their belly, and that this is a recurring problem.
Most of the children come from large families.
Most of these children's fathers are alive, but they are still sent out to collect scrap. Some of the fathers are disables and some are fresh arrivals from Kabul. They are the ones suffering from poverty.
People complain about these children that they are thieves.

Sharif Khan s/o Ghulam Nabi

Tribe Ghazi Ningrahar

12 Years

Sharif is collecting scrap for 5 months. He goes for scrap collection early in the morning and collects wood, bones, plastic, papers in Hayatabad area. He earns 30 rupees per day. He keeps money in Khazana (Special pot for money). During the collection of scrap, he has no shoes in his feet. His elder brothers does embroidery work. Sharif lives near Zalmi shop close to Kacha Gari camp No.2.

Masood s/o Shahwali

Zakhel Ningrahar

9 Years

Masood's mother died and his father who sells poultry in the market got married again. He has 5 brothers and 3 sisters. He earn 20 rupees per day. Masood's brother is working in a factory, but he doesn't give any money to him. He lives near Kacha Gari camp.

Fazal Rehman s/o Gul Rehman

14 Years

Fazal comes from Laghman province. He has 5 brothers and 3 sisters, all of who are very young. The family migrated from Afghanistan only a month ago. Fazal's father is disabled and the family is impoverished, and partly dependent on his income from garbage collection. He does not know any other work. He goes to work very early in the morning and comes back at 4:00 PM. He takes neither breakfast not lunch at home. He earns 30 rupees every day which he gives to his father. Fazal would like to go to school but he cannot do so because of his family severe economic problems. He live in Kacha.

Samiullah s/o Shah Mahmood

Tribe Zakhel Shinwari

Sami does not go to school. His father is chowkidar and gets 1200 rupees per month. There are no shoes in his feet and his clothes are usually very dirty. He collects paper, plastic bottles, iron, tin cans, bones and dry bread in Hayatabad area. Sami says that he takes out garbage from the houses and puts it in the drums. He brings home vegetables from salvaged from the garbage that are consumed by the family. He has 7 brothers and 3 sisters. He earns 20 rupees a day that go to his mother. He takes his breakfast at home but does not eat lunch. If sami takes a day off from work, his parents get angry on him. One of his brothers is a tailor and the other one is in Najar. He lives near with 2nd shop with hospital in Kacha Gari camp.