The United Nations Children’s Fund ( UNICEF) is planning to launch a survey program later this year on street and working children in Myanmar, aimed at developing measures to protect them from being abused and exploited in various forms.

According to a report of Monday’s Myanmar Times, in cooperation with two Myanmar ministries relating with social welfare, relief and resettlement, and labor, the UN agency will conduct an assessment of children in three cities of Yangon, Mandalay and Pathein to determine the living conditions
and the vulnerability of them to the various forms of abuse and exploitation.

The agency has carried out training for some dozens social and religious workers, teachers and caretakers in the two prior cities this year on protecting children from being deprived of care and those infected by HIV/AIDS, an official of the agency said.

Besides, a study is also being made by the agency on internal and cross-border migration in five townships in collaboration with an international non-governmental organization, the World Vision, to monitor the link between migration and the problem of human trafficking, the official disclosed.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is drafting a national plan of action in line with the UN agenda “A World Fit for Children” drawn up in 2002 which includes 21 goals focusing on education, combating HIV/ AIDS and protecting children from abused and exploited. The agenda is targeted to be achieved within a
decade.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has urged Myanmar to enhance endeavors to integrate the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into laws and practices, according to official sources.

Myanmar became a signatory to the UNCRC in 1991 and afterwards the country enacted its child law in 1993 prohibiting child labor.