November 4

 

Eight-year-old Pan Ka Lay (flower) (pseudonym) said she could not remember a time when her parents prepared her a meal.

 

"My mother doesn't have pots to cook our meals. She can cook. But we don't have plates to serve the food. We don't have a home. We sleep at a jetty," she said while closing her mouth with her hand, hiding her yellow teeth.

 

She and her siblings consume rice, noodles and food donated inside the compound of Botahtaung Pagoda in downtown Yangon.

 

When there are no donors at the pagoda, they have to eat leftover food from the nearest monasteries just to fill their stomach.

 

"My parents ate the food we took for them. We have to give them the money we receive from begging so they could pay their debt. They owe K500,000 from the loan sharks," said Pan Ka Lay while showing her hand that was covered with dirt.

 

Although she knows she eight years old, she didn't know exactly what it means. She is the second in the brood of five and she has two younger sisters and a brother.

 

She wore clothes that came from donors that were too big for her and covered with a lot of grime.

 

"My mother doesn't have pots to cook our meals. She can cook. But we don't have plates to serve the food. We don't have a home. We sleep at a jetty," she said while closing her mouth with her hand, hiding her yellow teeth.

 

 

Her brown round face is covered with grime and she’s not wearing anything under her feet. She offered her snack to me with her dirty hands.

 

Like her family, there is another family, relying on donations at the compound of the Botahtaung pagoda, for their daily survival.

 

Pan Ka Lay doesn't go to school like her big brother who is two years older than her and her sister, two years younger than her.

 

They have an infant sibling. Their father is a trishaw driver, while mother is selling birds that are freed for offering at the pagoda.

 

They are sleeping at a jetty that people use in crossing between the boats and the land. They usually packed their beddings in the morning and keep it under one of the rock chairs along the riverbanks.

They begged the police officers to allow them to sleep on the jetty but they are not allowed to use mosquito nets when they're sleeping. At night when there are heavy rains, they had to sit without any sleep.

 

"There was heavy rainfall and wind, so we had to spend the night by sitting like them," said Pan Ka Lay while pointing at other children, running toward the pilgrims in order to beg.

 

There are more than 20 children like Pan Ka Lay living at the jetty and most of them have blisters and rushes due to bites of mosquitoes and other insects. Their bodies smell badly and have many impetigo rushes, a contagious bacterial skin infection characterized by pustules and yellow crusty sores..

 

The children said they jumped off riverbank to wash their bodies. But there is no soap and shampoo. They even wear the same clothes with a wet body and their clothes go dry while they're running under the sun.

 

"They wore the same clothes all the time as they have no other clothes. They only change their clothes when there are donors," said a vendor.

 

Like Pan Ka Lay, many children do not go to school. Some of them are sleeping at the jetties along the Botahtaung River while some are staying at slum area in nearby Dala township.

 

Phu Phu, a nine-year-old girl, went to school until Grade 3. She said her father lives at another place while she and her mother lives near a bridge inside at the Botahtaung Pagoda compound.

 

Her mother was arrested by the police officers a month ago for gambling.

 

"I wasn't able to see my mom. She is pregnant and doesn't feel well. I am collecting money to give her," said Phu Phu, who looked worried and depressed.

 

She and her two elder brothers are now living with their relatives. Phu Phu and her brothers, many more children live beside the roads and survive by collecting trash, begging, selling food for the birds or selling birds.

 

"There was heavy rainfall and wind, so we had to spend the night by sitting like them," said Pan Ka Lay while pointing at other children, running toward the pilgrims in order to beg.

 

 

"I suffered a stroke and my husband ran away. My elder sons have their own families and I had to rely on the incomes from my child," said a mother of an underage child who sold birds inside the Botahtaung Pagoda compound.

 

According to the 2019 census, there are 4.9 million children up to the age of four years across the country, while 4.9 million children aged between 5 and 9-years-old.  Another 4.7 million of children aged between 10-14-years-old and 5 million more between the ages of 15-19.

 

In total, there are nearly 20 millions (19.714 million) children under 19-years-old in Myanmar. 

 

Many of these children, like Pan Ka Lay are surviving under very poor conditions with their parents having no steady means to support them.

 

Majority of these children are spending their lives inside the compound of different pagodas across the country, relying on donations for their survival as they have no skills to be able to engage in gainful employment.

 

"We want the government to help us. It is not easy to earn K3000 daily. We are facing hardship as my business isn't good. And I don't know what to do for a living. I would rather die than to have proper medication if I get sick," said an ambulant vendor.

 

Some people who helped these street children fear they [children] might turn to illegal activities if they could not return to school or have gainful work.

 

A child rights activist said these children who had not been allowed to have education are losing their fundamental human rights and the consequences would be worse.

 

"A person without education could easily trust what everyone says, and could get fearless with hatred. Of course they don't like this circle but they can't break through that circle," the child rights activists said.

 

Before the military seized power more than two years ago, there were many groups and organizations that help children like Pan Ka Lay by providing free education at night and helping them to go to school,

 

Almost none of these groups are left now to provide assistance and much needed  education to the homeless children.

 

These organizations do not dare to gather and teach these children because junta forces used to arrest large number of young people congregating in one place.

 

So, many homeless children like Pan Ka Lay end up hopeless and helpless.

 

Without having a proper birth plan, they are unable to see doctors and go to clinics when they are sick.

 

Pan Ka Lay's young sister almost lost one of her fingers from playing and had to seek treatment at a public hospital. The hospital told her parents to go to the general hospital for better treatment but her mother refused as the general hospital is far from them.

 

"Her mother has an infant and also has to sell birds at the pagoda compound and she has no money. So, she just let her child be," said a vendor from Botahtaung Pagoda.

 

The six-year-old girl  with a dirty bandaged in her middle finger stood near Pan Ka Lay. "Do you know she threw her lost joint in the river?"  a playmate said, pointing at the girl with bandaged middle finger.

 

"A person without education could easily trust what everyone says, and could get fearless with hatred. Of course they don't like this circle but they can't break through that circle," the child rights activists said.

 

 

A child rights' activist said the government, including parents and NGOs, have the most responsibility for those helpless kids.

 

"They need to do every thing they can to ensure every children would have access to education. It is a loss for the country if every child does not get proper education," said the activist.

 

These children also dare to dream.

 

For example, Pan Ka Lay hopes to get work in restaurants along Botahtaung jetty while Phu Phu wants to watch a movie in the theater. Other children at the jetty want to go to school or visit the zoo or playground, go on a vacation with their parents and visit downtown with an ice cream on hand.

 

These days, children like Pan Ka Lay are happy because many pilgrims during the Thadingyut festival give them alms.

 

A group of homeless children stared at the pilgrims and visitors that visited the Botahtaung Pagoda. They have not taken their lunch yet as they still don't get food provided by the pagoda donors.

 

At noon, the group of children including Pan Ka Lay ran toward the monasteries carrying plastic bags in their small, dirty hands to get food for their lunch.

 

Burma Associated Press