RAWALPINDI, Aug 13: Abandoned by his parents a year ago due to abject poverty, nine-year-old Hassan, hailing from Kashmir , scavenges trough garbage containers in Pindi to earn his livelihood.

Hassan does not know about his nears and dears except for his parents name.

After fleeing from his home, for him the life was not a bed of roses. He has been abused many a times in the city and deceived by people in the name of job. “I have gone through the worst times after abandoning home. My parents would always beat me for small mistakes forcing me to leave home and earn bread for himself.“One day a van driver told me that why don’t you go to Rawalpindi where you would enjoy an independent life,” Hassan told Dawn at Pirwadhai area.

“This made me to leave my home and travel to Rawalpindi,” he said. What worries Hassan is that his parents have never tried to call him back to his village as according to him, his parents knew about his location.

“They (parents) do not need me,” he said in a choked voice but was determined that he would never go back to his home as he was earning enough money to live independently.

Like Hassan, children in the age of eight to 13 years can be seen in Rawalpindi-Islamabad working in auto workshops, factories, bus stations, and each of them has a story.

On the government level, Child Welfare and Protection Bureau under Home Department Punjab has the responsibility to take custody of such children and hand them over to their parents.But District Officer of the bureau Irfan Farid says that majority of children were deliberately discarded by their parents either because of the abject poverty or some other reasons adding that it was ‘really’ a big challenge for government to tackle this issue.

“Recently two children came to our office and were complaining that their drug addict father was forcing them to begging,” he said.

Interestingly, there is no private or government entities which could pick destitute children from work places or streets except for the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau which too is over burdened due to increasing number of children.

Some non-government organisations in the city look after runaway children by providing them lunch and training classes but have no arrangements for their accommodation.

At present, the bureau is trying to trace the parents of 10 children, in the age group of eight to 10 years. They published advertisements in newspapers too but without success. The Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act, 2004 discourages parents from forcefully involving children in child labour.

However, so far no father flouting the law has been taken to task in Rawalpindi division.

Salim Alam, 12, from Dhoke Hassu has taken refuge in the bureau as his father Nasir Alam wanted him to work at a motorbike shop.