How many of us when we are walking down the street or, more often, driving in our cars, look at those barefoot, malnourished children roaming the streets, begging for food or trying to wash our cars and think that they have parents desperately looking for them? Do we ever think that they are at risk of violence and/or sexual other forms of abuse? More often than not, we do not even spare such children a second thought for they are too far down the ladder and too removed from our own lives to merit one. The more conscientious among us might ponder that perhaps these children are not on the streets by their own free will, but even in such cases we will almost never go beyond thoughts. This speaks volumes of how widespread the problem of missing and exploited children is in Pakistan. Most people take it for granted that out of the many children we see on the streets every day, some were likely taken from their homes and families and are now being exploited. According to Roshni Helpline’s annual report a total of 2633 cases of missing children were reported in the country last year. While the majority of these children, around 74 per cent, were recovered and reunited with their families, around 33 wound up dead, of which 20 were sexually abused and murdered. Over 600 remain missing.
It is important to bear in mind that these are the reported figures and the true number of missing and exploited children could well be much higher. In cases where the family has not reported a child missing or is involved in their trafficking, recovering a child would be far more difficult and the risk of abuse much higher. However, kidnapping or trafficking is not always the reason children go missing. According to the Roshni report, an increasing number of children, particularly those aged 11 to 15 years, are running away from home because they face violence from their parents. The report claims that “the rise is attributed to parents’ lack of understanding of their children’s psyche, leading them to adopt violent methods”. This is a worrisome trend as it may lead to missing children running away from home again after they have been reunited with their families or they may not seek help and may even try to avoid it in order not to be reunited with their families.
In Pakistan, people tend to forget that children have rights that even their families or parents cannot infringe upon. This is so for both girls and boys, who in fact make up the vast majority of reported missing children cases. Hence, while it is important to better enforce existing child protection and recovery laws such the Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Act 2020, it is equally important for there to be a change in attitude when it comes to children among our institutions. The authorities need to be more willing to step in should a child be the victim of abuse from his/her own parents. Children need to be able to see the authorities as not just people who can protect them from strangers or criminals but someone who they can reach out to when they are facing problems at home as well. One must also remember that the majority of missing children cases involve working-class families. It is crucial to offer such families more resources to help them take better care of their children. This should include, along with financial assistance, resources such as family counseling as well.