By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:48 p.m. ET
MOSCOW (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin told his government on Tuesday that it was not doing enough to end homelessness among children -- a problem he says has reached alarming proportions.
His comments, during a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko, came a day after he ordered new proposals for dealing with what is a growing concern.
``People are raising this issue,'' Putin said. ``If people are drawing the attention of the head of state to this problem, that means the measures haven't been effective.''
The government says there are at least 1 million homeless children in Russia. In Moscow, they typically congregate at train stations and can be seen sleeping in subway cars and near ventilation systems that give off heat. Beggars often stand in the subway with children who may or may not be their own.
At her meeting with Putin, parts of which were broadcast on ORT television, Matviyenko ticked off a list of recent government initiatives.
Children's rights advocates welcomed the president's attention to the problem but said the challenge would be to translate it into concrete action.
``What Putin said is important, but there are fears that this will again lead to nothing,'' said Boris Altshuler, head of a group called Right of the Child.
Altshuler said a 1998 law had aggravated the problem by prohibiting police from detaining street children unless they are suspected of a crime.
``Those children who commit a crime are given a warm place to sleep. They are fed, and social workers try to help them. Those who don't commit crimes are left on the street, in the cold, among criminals,'' Altshuler said. ``This is a disgrace.''
Yevgeny Balashov, a Moscow city legislator, called for stricter legislation against the exploitation of homeless children by criminals also out on the streets and for a law prohibiting teen-agers from being out at night without adult supervision.
Altshuler said most children living on the street had fled alcoholism or domestic violence at home. He said authorities should put more resources toward helping such families, with the aim of reuniting children with their parents, instead of handing them over to relatives or placing them in orphanages, as is the current practice.
Ninety percent of homeless children have parents to return to, Matviyenko said.
