LAHORE, Feb 14: A majority of street children in the city run a high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), and hepatitis B and C, says a study, Vulnerability of Children to HIV/AIDS in Lahore: A Situation Analysis, that exposes some of the worst forms of child abuse taking place in the country.
The study, by a British organisation , Save the Children, is due to be launched here on Thursday (today). It blames poverty, illiteracy, dysfunctional home environment and complicity of the law enforcement agencies for vulnerability of these children to HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Since study is restricted to the district of Lahore, it is difficult to gauge the spread of the problem nationwide. But Dr Naeem Zafar of the Pakistan Paediatric Association, who was the focal person for the project, claims surveys in similar environment in other parts of the country may lead to similar findings.
The study has been conducted by consultants from a nongovernmental organisation working with such vulnerable groups of children as those living on the street, runaway boys and child workers.
Various categories of vulnerable children were selected for the sample from child labourers, children in conflict with the law (child prisoners), abandoned children, children working in the truck industry, street working/living children, Afghan refugee children, exploited girls, children working at roadside hotels, trash pickers, children working at auto workshops, runaway boys, special children, to boys working in the massage industry.
“Although Pakistan is still considered to have a low prevalence of HIV in comparison to other countries like India, the high risk practices associated with certain population groups can indeed compound the issue. Globally, the HIV virus has affected more than 40 million people. It is alarming to note that every minute a child dies of AIDS somewhere in the world, and in the same minute one new child gets affected by the disease,” says the study.
The study indicates that 51 per cent of the respondents, whose average age was 15 years, had not attended school, nearly 60 per cent had experienced one or more types of violence at home, 58 per cent reported having had some form of sexual experience and 94 per cent confirmed they had been forced into sex at least once by an ‘elder caregiver’. A mere 8 per cent of the respondents knew what HIV/AIDS was or what it entailed.
The sample awareness regarding STDs was extremely low, only 20 per cent, even though most children reported one or more symptoms. “The fact that 80 per cent of the children are unable to relate the presence of STDs to their sexual behaviour reflects that they are at an even greater risk of acquiring HIV/AIDs, since lesions in syphilis and other untreated tears facilitate the transmission of viruses,” Dr Zafar says.
More than 60 per cent of the respondents selected for this study claimed that the police did not protect them against commercial sexual exploitation. “Nearly 15 per cent of those interviewed confirmed that the law enforcement agencies were actively involved in all types of abuse against them,” the doctor says.
The children making a living in precarious conditions usually resort to experimenting with easily accessible drugs. A few children interviewed for the study reported that needle-sharing was common because most of them could not afford to buy individual needles. “This leads to sexual advances made by older men, usually their employees, who encourage drugs use. Helpless as these children are, they make little effort to resist and end up being sexually exploited for which they make not more than Rs1,200 to Rs1,500 each month,” explains Dr Zafar.
The usual route taken by these runaway children is carefully chalked out in the study. The story as related in the report goes something like this: a child arrives in Lahore and gets dropped at the Badami Bagh bus adda; he is immediately spotted brought to the Data Darbar for free food; later he is taken to some place, say Karim Park near Minar-i-Pakistan, for a little entertainment; if the ustaad doesn’t own a place within the Old City, the child is taken to Ali Park for the night where he sleeps alongside several other children sharing the same common fate.
A male child prostitute’s life is divided into three distinct phases, says the report, starting from working as an apprentice for his rakhwaala (protector) for a few years before being passed on to another group for commercial sex. The third and the last stage is that of an exploiter where the child has matured as a man to become an active member of the male child sexual exploitation. “It’s wrong to assume these children are homosexuals and enjoy sex. It’s a power game expressed by the commercial sexual exploiter because at some point in life he must have been exploited too,” explains Dr Zafar.
The report recommends to the government to provide proper healthcare and awareness of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases to ensure children’s safety. A profound and long lasting effect of preventing street children from leading a life of eternal doom is to crack down on the law enforcing agencies exploiting and encouraging activities leading to the exploitation of children.