THE streets of Karachi are witnessing a new form of child exploitation: children performing as living statues. Children as young as six are covered in silver or gold paint from head to toe and they wear matching suits, hoping to earn some money from their performance. They can be seen across Karachi in public spaces, including at traffic signals, on footpaths and at the beach.

Street performances are a global tradition. A living statue showcases an artist’s skill in remaining perfectly still and then suddenly coming to life, surprising the onlooker. However, children must be safeguarded against economic exploitation and situations that disrupt their education, or that harm their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development. But their protection cannot be achieved through removing them forcibly.

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s laws and policies are unable to specifically address the issue of children in such street situations. A child-rights approach ensures respect for a child’s dignity, life, survival, well-being, health, development, and participation; it recognises the child as somebody who has rights.

In Sindh, the Children Act, 1955, is applicable. Section 4 (c)(i) defines ‘begging’ as “soliciting or receiving, alms in a public place … such as singing, dancing, fortune-telling, performing tricks or selling articles”.

Our laws are unable to protect children in street situations.

Section 40 of the Act gives police officers the power to bring “a child found begging” before a juvenile court or a magistrate. Under Section 44, the court may “send the child to a remand home for further inquiries”.

Additionally, the Sindh Child Protection Authority (Amendment) Act, 2021, gives the child protection officer the powers to take into custody a child requiring such measure against abuse. It defines ‘abuse’ in Section 2 (a-i) as including economic exploitation. The rules under the amended law have not been formulated yet, leaving a gap in the implementation of this law through a child-rights approach.

Practices such as eviction and forcible removal of children from street situations through ‘anti-child beggary drives’ need to be removed from Pakistan’s legal framework. Interventions that fail to recognise children as active participants in their transition from street life to alternative care are often ineffective, leading to many children returning to the streets.

A child-rights approach must be applied to uphold the best interests of the youngsters. Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. In accordance with Article 27 (3), states have a responsibility to provide children a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual and moral development, to prevent them ending up in street situations and to fulfil the rights of children already in such situations.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child provided authoritative guidance to states on developing national strategies on such situations involving children through the general comment No. 21 (2017). The committee stated that states should “abolish any provisions allowing or supporting the round-up or arbitrary removal of children and their families from the streets or public spaces; abolish where appropriate offences that criminalise and disproportionately affect children in street situations, including begging”.

Interventions for children transitioning from street life into alternative care need to respect and acknowledge their agency. When children are actively involved in the decision-making process, they are more likely to feel a sense of ownership and commitment to positive changes.

Additionally, children in street situations face multiple forms of discrimination. This includes indirect discrimination through policies that exclude them from essential services such as health and education by requiring identity documents.

Recently, the Sindh Human Rights Commission collaborated with the province’s local government department to waive the birth registration fees of children across Sindh to tackle discrimination against children in street situations. The SHRC also provided training to the police force and judicial magistrates on applying a child-rights approach in rescuing children in street situations. However, such training must extend to child protection officers, parliamentarians and healthcare professionals, too. Sindh’s child protection policy must be formulated to include the rights of children in street situations.

In the wake of the 18th Amendment, the subject of children has been devolved to the provinces to take measures to address their exploitation. Each province and Islamabad Capital Territory must adopt laws and policies based on a child-rights approach to protect children in street situations.

The writer is a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn and an advocate of the high courts of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2024