Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Emma Kantema, says the ministry has identified the need to undertake a regional study to determine the number of children who are living and working on the streets in this financial year.

The study is aimed at understanding the underlying causes of the phenomenon.

Dr Kantema was responding to IPC MP Lilian Lutuhezi, who raised concerns regarding the growing number of children on the streets across the country.

Kantema stated that the Child Care and Protection Act provides for social workers to regard children who are unaccompanied and without any adult provision and care as children in need of protective services.

She said that based on the Act, the minor will be removed from the street and placed in a shelter to assess whether the child will be reintegrated into the family or placed in alternative care.

The ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the National Youth Service (NYS), implemented a five-week pilot project for the children living and working on the street as part of their action plan between February and March this year.

"The aim of the pilot was to initiate change for children; we had around 81 children in this programme. 63 of these 81 children were male, while the rest, the number 18, were females. Now after we graduated the children, after the five-week pilot programme, the cabinet approved that the ministry, in collaboration with MEIYSAC and National Youth Service, continue to reintegrate the children back into school, and those who were found to be above 18 would then be considered for the vocational training and also the National Youth Service training that's offered at the Reitfontein."

She stated that these are some of the collaborative measures with offices, agencies and ministries to ensure that the children are removed from the streets and rehabilitated.