Strategy stressed to deal with street children

LAHORE:Civil society organisations urged the government to devise a comprehensive strategy to deal with the issues of street children in a holistic and sustainable way under guidelines issued by UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in General Comment No 21 on Children in Street Situations.

This was urged during a virtual panel discussion arranged by Search for Justice in collaboration with Consortium for Street Children on the day marked for street children. Iftikhar Mubarik who heads Search for Justice said, “It is important that all provincial governments have child protection policies followed by action plan and strategies to deal with the issues of children. The government must initiate small scale community-based interventions with the support of civil society organisations having prior experience of working with street children.” Afshan Tehseen Bajwa, Chairperson National Commission on the Rights of the Child, assured that the Commission will push all provincial governments to develop strategies, in consultation with civil society organisations, academia, independent experts, lawyers, and most importantly children on streets themselves.