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| Poor children taking care of parents’ food! |
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Khalid Iqbal
Rawalpindi
Hundreds of children hailing from poor families are seen wandering here and there to collect food, which is distributed free of cost in different localities of the city by philanthropists and some hotels.
It is disheartening to see small kids standing in long queues with a glimmer of hope in their eyes to find some food not only for themselves, but also for their families back home. They have to face all kinds of weather conditions and walk for miles to collect the food from free distribution points in Pirwadhai, Jamia Masjid Road, Faizabad, Raja Bazaar, Chungi No22, Sadiqabad, Barri Imam, Golra Sharif and Ganjmandi areas.
Talking to ‘The News’ Child Protection Bureau District Officer Irfan Farid said that hundreds of children wander from place to place in search of free food every day. “It is their parents who are responsible for this situation. They should take care of their children and feed them instead of letting them roaming in the city,” he added.
He also revealed that during last one year they took around 1,280 such children into their custody and called their parents at the bureau to tell them about the actual activities of their kids. However, it was astonishing to note that in most cases the parents compelled their children to go to such distribution points to collect food.
He feared that such children could fall into wrong hands and either become drug addicts or criminals.
Asad Khan and his sister Hina, residents of Ganjmandi standing in a queue in front of a free-food distribution point along Jamia Masjid Road, told ‘The News’ that after hard struggle they were able to get a packet of rice each. Asad Khan said that he knows several points where free food is distributed. He said they are five brothers and sisters and everybody visit such distribution points to collect free food. He said that they return home at night after eating two times meal every day and some time they even take food for their parents as well, he added. Hina said that her mother forced her to go outside in search of food.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
