Violence against children is an international concern as a huge number are still facing severe crimes of Child Abuse. UNICEF (2024) reports that over half of the world’s children experienced violence last year out of which 64 percent were in South Asian regions.
Similarly street children are widespread in Africa and the practices for their protection and rights seem to be hopeless. According to United Nations, 150 million children may be homeless across the world.
Agenzia Fides (2023) reports that 15000 children are living on the streets in Malawi while the northeast region of Nigeria has almost 1.5 million homeless kids.
Therefore, States and communities need to do due diligence and work to ensure the healthy living all children.
UN indicates that about 30,0000 children are on streets in Kenya. Also, the State Welfare Organization (2023) reported that an estimate of 120,000 children are engaged in some form of child labor while the homeless minors face kidnapping, physical and sexual violence.
Impact of Ignoring Street Children in Society
Ignoring street children means a valueless society.
Sexual harassment is commonly observed with street children across the globe, as such, promoting awareness about child rights is one of the fundamental responsibilities of a society.
Moreover, parents should be educated about the child rights. One of the major objectives of the educational institutions is to teach successfully about these rights. Unfortunately, the harsh attitude displayed by some parents and teachers is sometimes considered necessary for the personality development of a child in developing countries.
However, the term child rights need to be well elaborated in parental climate and educational institutions.
This is because, child neglect is a criminal attitude that leads to many behaviors extending from “bad parenting” to serious risks to a child’s health and safety.
Similarly, sexual abuse, exploitation, child labour and trafficking cases have been observed across the globe as a result of neglecting child rights.
United Nations Human Rights reports about the new emerging exploitative practices of online child sexual abuse including sexual exploitations, sexual slavery, and child marriages particularly in African regions.
Child Labour Rights
Child labour leads to mental and physical illnesses.
To overcome crimes against children, youth should play an active role particularly, university graduates who should be creating awareness about child rights and child protection. Societies must also be well aware about the criminals who are involved in crimes against children.
Moreover, electronic, print media, and wealthy members of the society should play a vital role in promoting awareness about child rights.
Also Read: Educating Nomadic Children: A Global Concern to Focus
United Nations and individual states have policies and practices for the child rights and child protection worldwide.
Unfortunately, millions of minors are still seeking for the rights with many cases reported of children belonging to physical broken and psychological broken families seeking help as they are bound to work as laborers.
Even though children are the future of the word, it seems like parents have failed in provision of their rights. It should be noted that how we treat children reflects our vision and quality of education.
International Labour Organization reports that 16.7 million children at the age of 5-7 years are in child labour 28 million others are inactive in South Asia.
This inequality and injustice lead to crimes and imbalance the societies in many perspectives.
Also Read: Couple Arrested for Burning Their Children with Hot Machete
The Way Forward:
Millions of children are crying for food and protection while others are facing physical and sexual harassment.
This situation is truly disappointing and concrete strategies are required to deal with this severe situation.
Overall, we should evaluate the barriers in the physical, psychological and moral development of children and address barriers for preparing a healthy generation for a better future society.
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