The chai wala mania is all over social media as pictures and cover stories are being shared. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are stormed by the hype about blue-eyed lad. Amidst this, another beautiful blue-eyed boot wala, hardly 10-year-old, caught my attention. His beautiful wandering blue eyes and golden hair with a rugged look can melt anyone’s heart. The boy arrives outside the school right before 8am; sits nearby the school gate with his boot polish kit as a source of work. While uniform-clad kids go inside, he sits outside as an alien detached from them. His tiny body carries a heavier than his stature weight. Not just the weight of the polish kit, it’s rather the burden of bearing the responsibility of feeding his family. He sits outside the school daily, his fingers are all black not with the ink of a pen but with boot polish. Many cars pass by him everyday most of them affluent people, their pictures appear in the glossy social magazines, their tea parties are talk of the town. They attend fancy parties in the name of charity for poor. The school faculty sees him everyday but here education is a commodity so nobody can take it without paying for it. The school administration holds regular bake sale to collect money for charity but the thirst of the little boy sitting right outside the gate remains unquenched. The boot wala will be sitting there and remain there, until any of us care to stop for him. His fate will remain unchanged till we indulge ourselves in small groups to work informally for many kids like him. Try to make efforts for donations among our social group to fund education. It has to be done without waiting for a supernatural force to change the destiny of such children. The street children in Pakistan are estimated to be between 1.2 to 1.5 million; it is reported that most of the street children are affecters of broken family or orphans. A study carried out by SPARC on street children revealed that 56.5% from Multan, 82.2% from Karachi, 80.5% from Hyderabad and 83.3% in Sukkur were forced to move on streets due to floods in 2010 and 2011. A majority of the street children uses drugs, 92% of them admitted that they use various kinds of drugs, 66% inhale glue and 15% use heroine. According to the Human Rights report in 2005, out of 18 million children between the ages of 5-9, only 42% are in schools. Out of every 100 children enrolled, only 6 complete Grade 12. As per the Justice Foundation report in 2011, these street children face the most serious threats to health and security. They are the most vulnerable group to sexual abuse and later it becomes a source of their survival. These kids’ health conditions have multiple problems due to the unhygienic, adulterated food, sexual abuse and exposure to all kinds of drugs. The drugs that are easily available are solvents, marijuana, crack and glue. These children have high risk of HIV and STD. The children who sleep on footpath at night make the worst of it as whatever money they earn is snatched from them and they are subjected to sexual and physical abuse. Whatever they earn the whole day, the only way to own is to spend it immediately. An organisation named ‘Pehchan Foundation, working for street children was formed in 2005 by a group of parents and child specialist Dr Naeem Zafar. Till today this foundation is being run by few domesticated parents and none of any well-known social worker we see in media all the time. Dr Naeem, a renowned paediatrician and an activist for child rights, briefed about street children. He tells how the “run away children is the most misused term, as these children are forced to leave their houses due to extreme torture by stepparents or negligence. There has been no accurate data on street children, but according to an estimate 20,000 are homeless street children who spend night on footpaths and have no place to go.” The Pehchan has received an award by the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPAN). They started South Asia first care unit at the Children’s hospital for emotionally traumatised, sexually or physically abused children. They now mainly work for the re-enrolment of school dropouts. The government dropout ratio is almost close to50%. These dropouts have a tendency to leave their houses as they face humiliation both at school and home. Five years ago, a shelter home was set up by the Pehchan Foundation which catered to almost 40 homeless street children. Kids were allowed to sleep there, but they were instructed to keep it lock till from 10pm till 6am for security reasons. They were given locked boxes where they can keep their savings. Rehabilitation facilities, psychological help, informal education, food and medicines were provided to them. Volunteer workers, doctors and councillors rendered help. At the end, many kids were rehabilitated and sent back to their families with a support system of local town committees formed by the foundation. Thanks to our red tape system the Child Protection Bureau intervened and took children in their custody for government-run children bureau. Most of the children left the bureau as they faced the same sexual abuse inside the government-run child protection bureau. They faced a more jail like environment there. There is no psychological help provided and children are under a lock and key system. Why up-till now we are unable to form a system comprising professionals and transparently accountable by external observers. Is it a sin to be born as a poor child in Pakistan? What he gets from the society? The sexual abuse turns out to be the source of living for a child victim’ he accepts it as a means of living and later patronise such abuses himself and the mafia keeps on growing. The abuser becomes his caretaker who gives food, money and shelter. Other than SOS Village and Edhi homes we can hardly think of properly managed orphanages in Pakistan. A chain of children’s home is needed. The Punjab government has formed a committee comprising some civil society activists, UNICEF member and government authorities after Kasur incident to make long-term reforms. Few of the members suggested to form a child rights commission. The Punjab law minister opposed and suggested that a single committee under child protection bureau will be formed. Neither the child protection nor these countless committees had played any substantial role until now. To make the system look functioning perfectly, who could be better scapegoats than these children. I tried to contact the provincial minister on the issue but did not get any response. This gloomy situation must be ended but the candle has to be lit by us. Working in groups for street children in our area and forming support groups of neighbours, friends or colleagues will lead towards the hope. Just swallowing the harsh realities is the path to further deterioration. We have to do it ourselves rather than waiting for a leader to do it. In words of Mother Teresa “if you can not feed 100 people just feed one”. The writer is a children’s right activist and a former educationist