THIS is downright violation of child rights in the name of rehabilitation of so-called street children of Karwan Bazar. Some social welfare directorate officials with police help on Saturday randomly picked up and forcibly hauled a bunch of boys and girls on to a parked microbus. The fear-stricken children raising a hue and cry, the jostling crowd came to their aid, resisting the move to take them away.

Neither the social welfare staff nor the policemen could furnish an official order on demand from the public. What is more to the point is that the children are not destitute or homeless, at least most of them were not. This became clear when a parent, relative or guardian came forward to own them up.

Even if they were rootless and floating, that was hardly the way to commence a social rehabilitation programme to take them under any caring wing. It was inherently ill-conceived, unplanned and entirely reliant on coercive methods. It was thoroughly unannounced as though a raid was being carried out on some criminals.

It could have been positively purposeful move for street children had it been backed by survey, data collection and mapping about pockets of destitute children across the metropolis. Actually, without any spadework done such a move should not have been undertaken in the first place. Besides, importantly, local body representatives should have been consulted and taken on board.