Street Children

Street children is a term used to describe children who live on the streets of a city. Most of these children are between the ages of 5 and 17, and they are deprived of family care and protection. They sometimes live in cardboard boxes, abandoned buildings, parks, or on the street itself. It is hard to categorise street children, as some have irregular access to housing with parents or adults who may not properly care for them, while others live permanently on the streets in gangs with other children.

UNICEF divides street children into two categories:

1. Children who work on the streets during the day in an economic capacity, either by begging or vending, and who take their earnings back to the family home where they live, eat and sleep. These children may go to school, and have a sense of family belonging, but often they choose a permanent life on the streets because of the economic fragility of the family
2. Children of the street actually live permanently on the streets, and if there are family ties, they are maintained infrequently and tenuously

Approximate numbers of street children across the world:

• India: 11 million
• Brazil: 10 million
• Egypt: 1.5 million
• Russia: 1 million
• Kenya: 300,000
• Jamaica: 6,500
• Uruguay: 3,000

Children live on the streets for various reasons: poverty, natural or man-made disasters, armed conflict, physical and sexual abuse, exploitation by adults, urbanization and over-crowding, and orphaning of children as a result of HIV/AIDS. In India, street children are victims of hunger, malnutrition, health problems, substance abuse, commercial sexual exploitation and harrassment by police authorities. In some countries, squads are sent out deliberately to murder street children (for example in Brazil), and they are recruited into drug gangs that also expose them to the dangers of death,

Case Study - Guatemala:

• In the last year (2008-9), a child was abandoned in Guatemala City every four days - most were babies
• 408 children were killed here in the first 10 months of 2002 alone
• Street children in Guatemala have a life expectancy of four years
• According to UNICEF, some 75,000 Guatemalan children have been identified as malnourished, and some 67% of indigenous children suffer from chronic malnutrition

The problem of street children is a growing one, especially in the context of urbanisation and development that is shaping many countries across the world. Nevertheless, hundreds of charities are involved in worldwide projects to help children on the street, implementing measures to prevent the phenomenon. Institutional and street-based programmes are put into place to offer children food, education, medical services and drop-in centres in order to give them a chance for a better quality of life.

Useful Websites

www.toyboxcharity.org.uk

Facts about street children in Latin America, and possible responses to such problems

www.street-children.org.uk

A charity that looks to prevent the phenomenon by focusing on strengthening family ties