Islamabad, Jan 7 (IANS): Around 200 children who had run away from their families in Pakistan's northwest tribal region and were living on the streets of Pakistan's Peshawar city have been reunited with their families, a media report said Monday.

The Peshawar centre of the Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (Sparc) reunited around 200 children with their families in 2012, Dawn News reported.

Sparc said the children had left their homes due to corporal punishment at home, schools and Islamic seminaries. Most of them were from Mardan, Charsadda, Swat, Mohmand, Bajaur, Bannu and Rawalpindi.

"Street children are among the most vulnerable part of the population, as they are susceptible to disease, violence, sexual abuse and poverty. About 1.5 million children in Pakistan are on the streets," Sparc official Imran Takkar was quoted as saying.

The centre is run with assistance from the local community. It has brought children from streets, police stations, bus stops and other places and then reunited them with their parents, he said.

Before the reunion, the children were given psychosocial counselling to convince them to go back to their homes.