KARACHI, May 9: Between ten and twelve thousand children live on Karachi’s streets and over 63 per cent of these children are sexually abused. This was claimed at a workshop on “Child Protection Issue with Special Reference to Street Children,” held at the auditorium of the Women Sports Complex, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, on Wednesday.

The workshop was jointly organised under the project of rehabilitation of street children titled ‘Dastak,’ which is a joint venture of the Azad Foundation and European Union, Group Development.

Farah Iqbal, Research Director Azad Foundation, in her presentation revealed that around 90 per cent of street children are involved in sniffing adhesive glue, whereas 25.5pc of street children sniff petrol, while 10.6 pc are addicts of thinner.

She said that street children are not only physically abused, but they are sexually abused as well. According to the research findings, 63.4pc of street children are sexually abused, of which 53.2pc of children are around 13-15 years of age, while 23.8pc of street children were sexually abused between the ages of 16-18.

The workshop underlined the need of coordination among service providers to nurture a healthy environment for these children.

The Azad Foundation is going to establish a Night Shelter project for street children, in which the city government is a collaborative partner.

As many as 33 deputy district officers from the Community Development Department, Social Welfare Wing of the city government representing the city’s 18 towns attended the workshop. Executive District Officer Rehana Saif was guest of honour.—PPI