Homelessness is the condition of people without homes, and
people without homes are called as homeless people. This is the simple
definition of homelessness, but according to the United Nations, people who are
living in slum dwellings are also considered as homeless people.According to the report of United Nations, more than 20 million people are homeless in
Pakistan. This can be attributed to the people who have no access to housing or
living in the slum dwellings. Similarly, people who are living in the areas
effected by natural disasters (without proper housing) are also homeless people.
Inflation is the first major cause of homelessness in
Pakistan. In the last decade, prices of homes have increased by 10 times, but
wages have not increased with the same ratio. This has resulted in high level
of poverty in Pakistan and homelessness is on the rise.Homeless people
are homeless because they are lazy and ignorant. However, one million
population became homeless every year due to others reasons. Homeless people
find shelter in public housing. Due to the lack of money people cannot afford
the rent and stay on the road without any shelter in the winter or summer
season. While most of the homeless people experience such as lack of affordable
housing and long waiting for associated housing mean that many women and their
children are focused to choice between abuse at home and life on the
streets. Poverty and homeless both are linked closed.
"The streets are full of dangers for the
children who live there," said Azad Foundation psychologist Waseen Fatima.
"The use of drugs is common, and most of the children suffer from sexual
abuse or harassment."
"Bakarwal
Mobile Schools (BMS) 2007
“The Bakarwal people have lived a nomadic life for generations
and find it to be an intrinsic aspect of their culture and identity. Due
to rapid population growth, inflation, and increased restrictions to public
grazing areas, they are finding this traditional way of life is under
threat. At the same time, due to the structure and content of the current
education system, Bakarwal nomads remain largely illiterate and at an economic
disadvantage due to a lack of relevant educational opportunities” says Brandon Baughn, Director BMS"
It is hard to envision that there
are still groups of people in Pakistan who live nomadic lives/ nomads, during
their twice-yearly migrations. An alternate bivouacking under the stars every
single night.
“According
to statistics, there are over seven million gypsies living in Pakistan. But
despite their number, gypsies have no identity due to their lack of
documentation.There is no concept of birth registration within the community,
which makes it difficult for them to get Computerised National Identity Cards
(CNIC).”(Dawn news 11 October 2015)
Universal Children’s Day is observed every year on November
20. In Pakistan, the day is usually marked with a few functions at the federal
and provincial capitals and messages from the Prime Minister or President of
Pakistan with no serious follow up or impact on the state of child rights in
the country. In today’s piece I’ll particularly focus on children at risk in
Pakistan.
Children as part of street family are children from the
homeless families, gypsies and nomads who as a family and in some cases as a
community live on the street. Street family phenomenon is a major problem in
Pakistan’s urban context. In Islamabad, one can find children belonging to
street families begging and selling things on all the major traffic signals of
the city. Similarly, in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar and many other cities one
can find children from the street families begging, selling or cleaning wind
screens of the cars at the traffic signals.
These individuals seldom consume
meat, consuming mostly milk, yogurt, cheese and pabulum, wild plants which they
accumulate from their surroundings, while recognizing that they should never
reap excessively from one spot.
Millions of Pakistanis have abnegated
their right to education due to poverty, vulnerability, lack of services,
spatial isolation and conflicts. Nomads, in particular, are subject to
marginalization that renders their children’s formal education difficult.
Education frameworks and curricula
don’t regard such groups of people’s multifarious cultures. There are barely
any educators who talk their dialects and their schools frequently need
essential materials. Instructive materials that give exact and reasonable
information on nomadic groups and their lifestyles are especially uncommon.
The contrast in access to
education between nomadic and non-nomadic students is stark. The way forward
requires active involvement of community and all stakeholders and initiative
keeping in view the requirements of nomadic students.
This is particularly problematic for
those forced out of nomadic shepherding and, as a result, having to move to
marginal land on the outskirts of cities. The only options for Bakarwal
nomads to educate their children is to either abandon their traditional way of
life and settle in the outskirts of town, or send their children away to
Madrassas. Such practices may lead to a loss of their ethnic and
linguistic identities and throw them into a cycle of poverty. By adapting education
to the needs of Bakarwal nomads, such as training literate men and women from
the Bakarwal community to work as literacy instructors and providing a
mother-tongue curriculum “Every Shepherd
a Scholar, Every Scholar a Shepherd.” This way nomadic communities are able to
maintain their culture and simultaneously achieve progress through education.
1[25A.
Right to education.—The State shall provide free and compulsory education to
all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be
determined by law.]”
The Government of Pakistan should provide education to those
deserving families
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