THE public have been advised to keep a close eye and play their roles in proper children raising in order to address the increasing number of street children.
The advice was given here on Friday by the Deputy Minister for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups, Ms Mwanaidi Ali Khamisi.
She said, the government has only two centres which cannot accommodate all street children.
The deputy minister said the centres in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma regions are overwhelmed by the huge number of children thus calling for public support to ensure proper raising of the children to avoid producing street children.
She argued that if leaders at different levels and the entire public could play their roles adequately to raise children in the right manner, the increasing number of street children in the country would reduce.
The deputy minister was responding to a supplementary question by Special Seats MP, Taska Mbogo (CCM) who had wanted to know the number of children homes owned by the government and measures being taken to address the problem of street children.
The lawmaker also argued that Tanzania like other countries has ratified several treaties on child development, thus the need for the government to explain what it is doing in that line.
At the same time, she also wanted to know the efforts by the government to raise public awareness over the matter. “What are the government strategies to help street children who are increasing daily?” she asked.
While acknowledging that street children are becoming a serious problem, she said, “I appeal to leaders and the general public to play their roles in raising their children properly to prevent street children”.
The deputy minister explained that there are several reasons behind the influx of children on the streets in many urban areas in the country.
The government, she said has improved women and children security committees at different levels in society, creating a total of 18,186 at the national level.
At the same time, she said the government has embarked on providing public education to parents and guardians on positive upbringing of children.
“The government in collaboration with other stakeholders has been involved in removing children from the streets, returning some of them to their parents and also taking those without parents to its centres,” said the deputy minister.
She added that the private sector is also playing a very important role in supporting government efforts.
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