15. The phenomenon of street children in Senegal takes us back to two very distinct realities:   The children who roam about in the major cities of Senegal on whom national statistics are not available ; The children who are commonly referred to as « talibés ». 16. Concerning street children, their number in the Dakar region is estimated at about 8000; 95% of them originate from other regions of the country and neighboring countries (mainly from the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Mali).3 The Government of Senegal recently developed an integrated national system for the protection of children, which was incorporated into the Economic and Social Policy Document (DPES) with the aim of improving the protective environment for children in keeping with an Action Plan based on individual rights approach and results-oriented management. 17. The talibés phenomenon is a secular practice linked to socialization models which existed and still exist in rural communities having traditional Koranic schools (also called Daaras). It is a very complex phenomenon deeply-rooted in Senegalese society, which, due to poverty in families, lack of public school infrastructure and lack of choice on the part of parents for the religious education of their children, has often resulted in the use of children for begging by the Koran teachers. 18. Though statistics on this practice are somewhat unreliable, it appears quite clearly that the number of talibés, which was quite marginal at the end of the 1970’s, gradually increased to more than 300,000 or even 400,000 at the end of 1999, according to estimates provided by government when it was developing its ''Vision of Children in the Third Millennium'' 19. To address this extremely serious situation, the Senegalese government initiated several actions aimed at combating the practice:   3 Adoption of legislative mechanisms such as the introduction of the offence of begging4 into the criminal code and the adoption of a law criminalizing human trafficking and exploiting others through begging5 ; Establishment of a strategic framework for the reduction of the phenomenon of street children : 2006-2010 Poverty Reduction Strategy, National Social Protection Strategy of the Economic and Social Policy Paper 2011-2016, establishment of a mechanism for the Pooling of Resources and Experiences to address the practice [Partnership for the Withdrawal and Reintegration of Street Children (PARRER)] ; See The child beggars in the Dakar region, a Survey document by the World Bank, ILO and UNICEF, 2007. 4 Articles 241 to 247a, paragraph 2 of Article 245 expressly state that « persons who allow children of below 18 years in their custody to beg shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of between 3 to 6 months. » 5 Law 2005-06 of 10 May 2005 on combating human trafficking and related practices, and protection of victims, in particular its Article 3 on exploiting others through begging. 8