escape of the children from homes

With the name of the only & almighty God and with presenting greetings to you all dear audience; once again I am at your service by presenting this round table presented by the Change Life Compiegne.

The topic of our discussion for today’s program is about the escape of the children from homes and the guests that are with us are Mr. Chaman Shah Itemadi, Parliament member from Ghazni Province and Mr. Abdullah Abid, Head of the children section of the independence human rights commission in Afghanistan.

First Question: Mr. Itemadi; based on your views, what is the current life conditions or situation of the children in country?

Answer: In total the conditions of the children are rebound to the overall situation of the society; if the conditions of the society are normal then for sure that the conditions of the children are also normal and it has positive effects on the psycho and growth of the children.

In total if we compare the overall conditions of the children to the ten years back; Alhamdullelah we are toward the development and betterment, the opened schools has changed the views of the people towards the children but it doesn’t mean that we have reached to our ideal dreams. The goals that we have regarding the children are far away from us but good steps are taken and if it continue like this then we will have the opportunity to find out new ways about the steerage of the children, looking after children’s education with the use of new methods so that we develop much better as compare to the ten years back.

Second Question: Are the children bearing problems with the conditions they have?

Answer: Without doubt, as mentioned previously the conditions of the children are dependent to the conditions of the society; if the children are facing economic problems in the society, for sure this will have its effects on the children i.e. today’s program is also because of a specific reason which is children’s escape from homes and the problems that children are facing currently are poverty, violence, heavy work, earlier age marriages, untimely migration of the parents from the villages towards the cities, lack of proper supervision of the parents and clashes among the families which could be the reasons of escaping from homes.

Third Question: Mr. Abid; based on your views the problems mentioned by Mr. Itemadi were correlated with each other and do you think that they have link with escapes from homes?

Answer: It is natural that these problems have its effects but there are some other points as well i.e. addiction to the narcotics, separation of parents by anyway, comparison of one child to the other and not paying attention to the personality of the child could be obsessive point and the child will think that escape from home is the solution. As the home environment is the place where the problems are required to be solved and if there is the problem then the children don’t have any alternative but to escape from homes, which may have horrible outcomes in the future.

Fourth Question: Mr. Itemadi; in the escaping children category, are there more girls or boys?

Answer: As there is not any accurate statistics in this regard but to my point of view; boys are more.

Question: Mr. Abid; how are your findings about the statistics of boys and girls escapes from homes, which category attempt more to escape?

Answer: As the factors were mentioned; both categories boys and girls are having role in this regard but most of the registered statistics in the Commission show that girls are more. As there were 2765 cases of violence against women in the year 1389; from which 292 cases were belong to the escape from homes and in the year 1390 (during 9 months) there were 3147 cases registered; from which 309 cases were of the escape from homes. Only in Kabul 95 cases of the escapes during last year are registered with this commission, where the statistics of girls are more.

Question: Mr. Itemadi; after the fall of Taliban regime, how many organizations are working in this area and what are the effects on the children?

Answer: As I mentioned before, if we compare the conditions of the children with the past ten years then we can observe a big change; the organizations which were created to support the children’s right are UNICEF, Save the Children and one section of the independence human rights commission is working in regard.

Question: Mr. Abid; in which specific field the mentioned institutions had their remarkable activities?

Answer: The activities were different, UNICEF and Save the Children are busy in building schools & clinics and steerage support to the children; simply each organization had their specific activities.

Question: Mr. Itemadi; As you mentioned one of the factors of escape from home is violence then what could be the basic cause of violence?

Answer: First of all it is to mention that in our society 70-80% of our people are illiterate; as the society is illiterate and meanwhile culturally vulnerable for women and children, therefore poverty and lack of awareness towards the principles of steerage can cause the violence.

Question: Mr. Abid; if you can elaborate more about the improper outcomes of the children’s escape from home?

Answer: It is natural that the outcomes would be bad; kidnaps and smuggling of children, other different aspects of using children, addiction to the narcotics and also attempting different kinds of crimes could be considered as horrible outcomes of escapes from homes.

Question: Mr. Abid; in the city the number of beggars are increasing, are there escaped children among them?

Answer: Yes, because when the children escape from the home; they would like to fulfill their needs and they don’t have any income source therefore start begging. Some of them are compelled to beg and because of the poverty some of them are rented to special groups for begging and they are forced to beg on the roads.

Question: Mr. Abid; in order to free the children from this problem, what programs are in hand and excluding your institution what are the government programs in this regard?

Answer: Based on the article 58 of the constitution; the independence human rights commission is a national institution and it has strategic planning in this regard which includes the following 5 targets; 1st target is Leading, 2nd target is Learning, 3rd target is Empowerment, 4th target is Lawsuit and 5th target is Monitoring and Evaluation. Based on these five strategic targets; different sections have declared their supports to the vulnerable category of women and children and they act upon it. This plan is designed for a period of 4 years starting from 1389 to 1392; in each year the plans are designed based on the mentioned five targets. The responsibility that commission has in this regard is to suggest in the written or report form to the government authorities from the supervision and findings; it is also to mention that the government also had some activities in this regard but were not remarkable enough.

Question: Ok Mr. Abid; in order to prevent the escapes from homes, what steps the government should take?

Answer: At the first step; the public awareness should be increased because in most of the families they are not aware of their children’s right and similarly the children are not aware of their parents and it is reason they are facing the problems. Then increasing the financial capabilities of the families, employment opportunities for people, learning opportunities for families and youth; these are the reasons if controlled or solved it may have positive effects.

In total if the people knew about their rights then they can claim for recession and these are the reasons which could be strengthen through mosques, media, etc by the families, teachers, ministry of labor and social affairs, ministry of education and other relevant institution. Secondly, each and every person of the society has his/her responsibility; if it is performed properly then there won’t be escape cases.

Question: Mr. Itemadi; whenever the families think that the violence against children are lawful or ok then what should be done so that the children don’t escape?

Answer: We have already mentioned which are the factors that compel the children to escape from home and these all needs to be eliminated. Secondly, these violence occur at the time when one of these factors are available in the family and or there is a cultural space, like if a father has grown up in an environment of 40 years back; now he would like to implement those conditions on his child now.

Question: Mr. Abid; what could be the negative effect of the children on the society?

Answer: As the family is one of the basic elements of the society, whenever this important element is careless then their children are escaping from the home and it is natural that it will have the effect on the society. These carelessness may disturb the systems of the society and whenever the systems are disturbed then the detective and military institutions may start work to capture those who are disturbing the systems and hand over them to the law so that they are punished until the people get back their safety.

Question: What is the most significant cause of it on the society?

Answer: Any action that these children are attemping for their wishes may effect on the society; if it is robbery, gamble, join the terrorist groups and or create bonds.

Question: As a final question I would like to ask; As there is discussion on this topic and its reasons are also specific then why not the government is not taking any action to eliminate this problem and if any step is taken then why not any result is taken?

Answer: As each institution has its own responsibility and if all of them make a coordination then for sure it will be useful to reduce the escape of children from homes but the statistics given to the commission this problem is increasing; which doesn’t mean that no action has been taken in this regard, the communication has increased as compare to the previous years and most of the people are contacting different institutions in this regard about their rights and this is the reason that the statistics are shown increasing as previously the problems were hidden and now it is clear.

Ok program friends; this was our today’s discussion where we discussed about the escape of the children from the homes and the horrible outcomes of this action on the children and society. We hope that the topics discussed here were fruitful for you.