KARACHI, Sept 8: As many as 27,000 children are estimated to live on streets in four major cities of Pakistan, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta and approximately half of them are addicts of various kinds of solvents, including adhesive glue, petrol and thinner.

Of the total 27,000 street-children, around 12,000 wander in Karachi streets, 8,000 in Lahore, 4,500 in Peshawar and 2,500 in Quetta, says a study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The study further says these street-children generate money by cleaning or washing cars, scavenging garbage, begging and selling flowers, balloons and other similar items.

Of these children, over 55 per cent complained of at least one medical problem that they faced at a time. Major problems reported by them were respiratory tract infection, fever, GIT upsets and skin infections.

Al most 90 per cent of addicts among them use adhesive glues for sniffing. Alarmingly, around 69 per cent of street-children interviewed admitted that they were also in the practice of using hashish, while others said they were in the habit of using alcohol, opium, heroin or other synthetic drugs. -PPI