Official attention to the issue of runaway children peaked in the Punjab 
in late 1999, after a psychopath, Javed Iqbal, wrote in to national newspapers claiming he had murdered 100 street children, and then dissolved their bodies in acid. Though the deaths were never proven, the recognition by the victim's families of their clothing, carefully preserved by Iqbal, and the failure of any of the boys, all photographed by Iqbal before their deaths, to turn up, suggest the claims of the man who became known as the country's most notorious serial killer, may well have been accurate. Javed committed suicide in mysterious circumstances at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail two years after handing himself in to police in 2000. His lawyers still maintain he was murdered by other convicts or jail staff.
The shocking revelations from Iqbal about his kidnapping and murder of
street children, led to many official pledges to set up shelters for
runaway children and booths where they could seek help. Efforts since then
to put such shelters in place have been minimal, and virtually none run
today in the public sector. The police too remain frequently reluctant to
register reports about missing children, or to play any part in seeking
them out.
However, in April this year the Punjab government set up the Bureau of
Child Protection and Welfare, an initiative supported by the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The Punjab chief minister's adviser on
children's rights, paediatrician Dr Faiza Asghar, has also said that laws
are being brought in to better protect children, and programmes for child
beggars and addicts devised. "A lot more needs to be done to protect
children who are deprived," she told IRIN.
UNICEF's Shamshad Bokhari explained to IRIN that "our work with the Child
Protection Bureau is a first step in the effort to tackle the runaway
children issue." He added that UNICEF was focusing on two main areas:
"awareness-raising about the problem and the capacity building of recovery
and reintegration staff, which will be working to rehabilitate children."
How far such efforts will succeed in resolving the issue of street
children remains to be seen. The problem is clearly a complex one, tied
into overwhelming poverty, unemployment, violence within homes and the
many social and economic frustrations families confront. The number of
children leaving home, some aged little more than seven or eight, is also
on the increase and it would appear that solutions can come only as part
of broader policies that address the root causes of children's desperation
and their increased suffering as a result of worsening socio-economic
conditions across the country.
in late 1999, after a psychopath, Javed Iqbal, wrote in to national newspapers claiming he had murdered 100 street children, and then dissolved their bodies in acid. Though the deaths were never proven, the recognition by the victim's families of their clothing, carefully preserved by Iqbal, and the failure of any of the boys, all photographed by Iqbal before their deaths, to turn up, suggest the claims of the man who became known as the country's most notorious serial killer, may well have been accurate. Javed committed suicide in mysterious circumstances at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail two years after handing himself in to police in 2000. His lawyers still maintain he was murdered by other convicts or jail staff.
The shocking revelations from Iqbal about his kidnapping and murder of
street children, led to many official pledges to set up shelters for
runaway children and booths where they could seek help. Efforts since then
to put such shelters in place have been minimal, and virtually none run
today in the public sector. The police too remain frequently reluctant to
register reports about missing children, or to play any part in seeking
them out.
However, in April this year the Punjab government set up the Bureau of
Child Protection and Welfare, an initiative supported by the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The Punjab chief minister's adviser on
children's rights, paediatrician Dr Faiza Asghar, has also said that laws
are being brought in to better protect children, and programmes for child
beggars and addicts devised. "A lot more needs to be done to protect
children who are deprived," she told IRIN.
UNICEF's Shamshad Bokhari explained to IRIN that "our work with the Child
Protection Bureau is a first step in the effort to tackle the runaway
children issue." He added that UNICEF was focusing on two main areas:
"awareness-raising about the problem and the capacity building of recovery
and reintegration staff, which will be working to rehabilitate children."
How far such efforts will succeed in resolving the issue of street
children remains to be seen. The problem is clearly a complex one, tied
into overwhelming poverty, unemployment, violence within homes and the
many social and economic frustrations families confront. The number of
children leaving home, some aged little more than seven or eight, is also
on the increase and it would appear that solutions can come only as part
of broader policies that address the root causes of children's desperation
and their increased suffering as a result of worsening socio-economic
conditions across the country.
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