‘Govt must care for street children’
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Saturday, August 25th 2007
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Homeless and unsupervised children have been at the forefront of most criminal activities as a means of having their basic needs fulfilled, the Small Enterprising Business Association (SEBA) said in a statement yesterday. It said the children were also being used by adults who exploit their homelessness and lack of supervision. "We wish to suggest that in Government’s plan to establish a Children’s Authority, part of the mandate of this new body should be to eradicate the problem of street children and unsupervised children who have so become either through death or separation from parents, perhaps by crime or imprisonment," SEBA said in its call for a special protection programme. "These children, who become young people, do so without any sense of purpose or value to their own lives or the lives of others, thus making this growing population of street children and incubator for the development and nurturing of criminal activity." SEBA said everything must be done to generate a sense of pride and self-esteem in these young individuals. "They may not reach out to us so we must reach out to them, redirecting their youthful energies into positive activities, thus allowing all sectors of the population, with specific reference to the small business sector, to enjoy a crime-free country and to be able to ply their trade in comfort with the only threat to the success of their business being the effects of the competitive environment in which they operate." |
