solvent-abuse-pakistan

BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION
Section one
Street children are defined as
“children who have to work on
the streets because their families
need money to survive, children
from poor families who sleep on
the streets, orphan and
abandoned children whose
parents have died because of
illness or war or for whom it was
simply impossible to look after
their children”.
1.1 Street Children
st
With the advent of the 21 century human
population is going through the cycles of feast
and famine. This can be observed especially
in under developed countries and in
developing nations like Pakistan. This
population explosion not only gives rise to a lot
of physical /environmental stresses such as
shortage of food supply, fuel and energy,
different type of pollutions etc but also the
psychological ones. They can be anxiety,
tension, worries, depressions several other
psychopathologies due to deprivation of need
fulfilment and coping with technological
advancement. Such frustrations would be
damaging for the inter personal relationships
and the consequences have to be borne by
both the individual and society disrupting the
over all growth pattern. The consequences
can be traced from the elementary unit of the
society which is family such as disrupted and
dysfunctional abuse of authority and power
and gradually to the over all social structure.
This can be an increasing rate of crime and
violence. Such a malfunctioning society
always strikes hard against the powerless
including women and children.
Children in particular are highly susceptible
to these highly volatile situations. They face
denial of their basic rights. The inequalities
they face due to adults behavior are
unimaginable, however the manifestations are
the same in any setting. The circumstances
faced are the same all over the world.
Parents, friends and the physical environment,
all play an active role in the development of a
child's personality. Any neglect, deprivation,
indifferent parental behavior possibly due to a
disrupted relationship can cause serious and
irreversible damage to the developing
personality, pushing the child into deviant
behavior. Many societies witnessed an influx
of children ending up on the streets due to
indifferent attitudes of their parents, family
break-up or poverty. Alarmingly, the numbers
have been constantly growing into significant
epidemiological proportions. Societies have
failed significantly in doing enough to follow
through and to create secure environments for
these displaced children known as “Street
Children”.
1
Street children are defined as “children
who have to work on the streets because their
families need money to survive, children from
poor families who sleep on the streets, orphan
1