Quoting the NGO's statistics, The News reported Saturday that 54 percent of Karachi's street children leave their homes between the ages of 10 and 12. Forty-five percent of them are involved in criminal activities, while 49 percent are at high risk of HIV/AIDS through drug usage and sexual abuse.

Poverty and domestic physical and mental abuse "are the key factors that lead children to begin a life on the streets," said Farah Iqbal, the NGO's research head and a trained psychologist at Karachi University.

Be it economic or social factors, street children leave their homes for an uncertain future. Many find work collecting waste paper, cleaning cars, working as shoe shiners or in small eateries. Some fall back on begging, pick-pocketing or offer themselves to sex perverts, while others end up as drug addicts. They use inhalants that are cheap and easily available but cause irreversible brain damage.

"They abuse solvents such as glue more than drugs since these are cheap," Iqbal said.

The problem of street children goes far beyond solvent abuse. They have no access to basic amenities such as health, education, or food.

In the back alleys of Karachi's bustling Saddar district, the stench of urine pervading the whole place, children as young as five huddle in groups of eight to 10 for warmth and security at night.

"My friends are my family now," one boy, his face blackened by the filth of the street, said timidly. "I feel safe here."

Safe is precisely what he's not. Street children are easy prey and, as their numbers increase each year, so too do reports of physical and sexual abuse.

According to the NGO, four out of every 10 street children examined were infected with sexually transmitted diseases. Sexual abuse is not uncommon. Many street children offer to provide a massage, a euphemism for sex, for as little as a dish of rice.

This prompted the NGO Azad to open the Dastak centre in Saddar. It is the only facility of its kind and here street children receive rudimentary healthcare, a hot meal, basic education - and most importantly, moral support.

"Basically, we try to introduce skills to them and eliminate anti-social behaviour," said Amjad Rasul, Dastak's programme manager. "They have negative attitudes towards society and need our love and affection."

--Indo-Asian News Service