While all children are entitled to protection, some children in Pakistan and Sindh face heightened and multiple risks due to poverty, social exclusion, unsafe work, displacement, or lack of adult care. Police officers are often the first authority to encounter these children and must recognise vulnerability even when it is not immediately visible.
Vulnerability is not a label. It is an indicator that a child may require additional care, sensitivity, and protection in police procedures.
Note
The groups described below are not the only children at risk in Sindh. They represent the most common situations that police are likely to encounter in daily work. Other children may also face vulnerability depending on their circumstances and experiences.
This includes children who live, work, or spend most of their time in:
These children are at increased risk of:
Many street-connected children move frequently and may lack family contact or documentation.
Children working in the following sectors are particularly vulnerable in Sindh:
Risks include:
Child labour cases often intersect with bonded labour, trafficking, or forced work.
Children working inside private households are among the most hidden and least reported cases.
Common risks:
Because abuse occurs inside homes, police intervention often depends on observation, community information, or third-party reporting.
Children may be trafficked within districts of Sindh, across provinces or national borders for the purpose:
Such children may be:
Trafficking cases require immediate protection measures and coordination.
Missing and runaway children are among the most urgent child protection cases encountered by police.
This includes children who:
Key risks:
Important:
A runaway child should never be treated as an offender. Running away is often a sign of abuse, fear, or desperation, not delinquency.
This group includes:
Key challenges:
Police must ensure that lack of documentation does not result in criminalisation.
Minority Children and Other Children Facing Identity or Belief-Related Risks
Some children face discrimination or targeted harm due to their identity or belief- including:
Such cases may involve heightened fear, misinformation, community pressure, or risk of mob violence. Police responses must be neutral, protective and free from bias, especially in sensitive communal contexts.
Children with physical, intellectual or psychosocial disabilities face:
Police must use additional care, patience and adapted communication when engaging with these children.
Children living in shelters, rehabilitation centres, orphanages, hostels and madrassas may face risks where oversight is weak, including:
Institutional settings do not remove police responsibility for child protection.
This includes children alleged or accused of offences, Involved in petty crime, used by adults or recruited by gangs for criminal activities. These children often face:
They remain children first, entitled to protection and rehabilitation.
These children often experience:
Police must ensure respect, dignity and non-discrimination in all interactions.
Key Message for Police Officers
✔ Vulnerability may not be obvious at first sight
✔ One child may fall into multiple vulnerability categories
✔ Lack of documents does not reduce a child’s rights
✔ Protection comes before punishment
✔ Early identification can prevent serious harm
This module focuses on preventing harm to children through early identification of risk and timely police action. In cases where children have suffered fatal harm, police responsibilities shift from protection to investigation, accountability, and prevention of recurrence.