Street child

An Afghan street boy smiles for the camera in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan (June 2003).

Street child is a term for a homeless child residing primarily in the streets of a city (typically in a developing country). The exact definition of a street child is debatable due to the lack of precise categories. The term has largely been used in reference to children who live entirely in the streets, without adult supervision or care. They are often subject to abuse, neglect, exploitation, or, in extreme cases, murder by "cleanup squads" hired by local businesses or police. In Western society such children are commonly treated as homeless children as opposed to criminals or solicitors.

Definitions

Street child in Bangladesh

‘Street children’ are increasingly recognized by sociologists and anthropologists to be a socially constructed category that in reality does not form a clearly defined, homogeneous population or phenomenon (Glauser, 1990; Ennew, 2000; Moura, 2002). ‘Street children’ covers children in such a wide variety of circumstances and characteristics that policy-makers and service providers find it difficult to describe and target them. Upon peeling away the ‘street children’ label, individual girls and boys of all ages are found living and working in public spaces, visible in the great majority of the world’s urban centres. The definition of ‘street children’ is contested, but many practitioners and policymakers use UNICEF’s concept of boys and girls aged under 18 for whom ‘the street’ (including unoccupied dwellings and wasteland) has become home and/or their source of livelihood, and who are inadequately protected or supervised (Black, 1993).

Statistics and Distribution

Street children may be found in a large majority of the world's cities. The phenomenon of street children is more prevalent in densely populated urban hubs of developing or economically unstable countries such as India, China, Africa, and Russia, among others. According to a report from the Consortium for Street Children, a United Kingdom-based consortium of related NGOs, UNICEF estimated 100 million children were growing up on urban streets around the world. 14 years later UNICEF reported: ‘The latest estimates put the numbers of these children as high as 100 million’ (UNICEF, 2002: 37). And even more recently: ‘The exact number of street children is impossible to quantify, but the figure almost certainly runs into tens of millions across the world. It is likely that the numbers are increasing’ (UNICEF, 2005: 40-41). The 100 million figure is still commonly cited, but has no basis in fact (see Ennew and Milne, 1989; Hecht, 1998; Green, 1998). Similarly, it is debatable whether numbers of street children are growing globally or whether it is the awareness of street children within societies which has grown.

History

Children sleeping in Mulberry Street - Jacob Riis photo New York, United States of America (1890)

The phenomenon of street children has been documented as far back as 1848. In the introduction to his history of abandoned children in Soviet Russia 1918-1930, Alan Ball states:

Orphaned and abandoned children have been a source of misery from earliest times. They apparently accounted for most of the boy prostitutes in Augustan Rome and, a few centuries later, moved a church council of 442 in southern Gaul to declare: “Concerning abandoned children: there is general complaint that they are nowadays exposed more to dogs than to kindness.” In Tsarist Russia, seventeenth-century sources described destitute youths roaming the streets, and the phenomenon survived every attempt at eradication thereafter. Long before the Russian Revolution, the term besprizornye had gained wide currency.

In 1848 Lord Ashley referred to more than 30,000 'naked, filthy, roaming lawless and deserted children', in and around London.

By 1922 there were at least 7 million homeless children in Russia as a result of nearly a decade of devastation from World War I and the Russian Civil War. Abandoned children formed gangs, created their own argot, and engaged in petty theft and prostitution.

Causes

The causes of this phenomenon are varied, but can be related to domestic, economic, or social disruption; including (but not limited to) poverty, breakdown of homes and/or families, political unrest, or acculturation.

By country

Russia

Russia has an estimated 1 million street children, and one in four crimes involves underage individuals. Officially, the number of children without supervision is more than 700,000. However, experts believe the real figure has since risen to between 2 and 4 million.

China

The number of China's urban street children is growing, with the Ministry of Civil Affairs estimating the number at 150,000.^{[citation needed]}

India

Two street children in Chennai, India

India is home to the world’s largest population of street children, estimated at 18 million. The Republic of India is the seventh largest and second most populous country in the world. Due to the acceleration in economic growth, an economic rift has appeared between, with 22 percent of the population living below the poverty line.^{[citation needed]} Owing to unemployment, increasing rural-urban migration, attraction of city life and a lack of political will, India now has one of the largest number of child laborers in the world.^{[citation needed]}

Vietnam

According to data by the Street Educators’ Club, the number of street children in Vietnam has shrunk from 21,000 in 2003 to 8,000 in 2007. The number dropped from 1,507 to 113 in Hanoi and from 8,507 to 794 in Ho Chi Minh City.^{[citation needed]} There currently are almost 400 humanitarian organisations and international non-governmental organizations providing help for about 15,000 Vietnamese children.

Pakistan

The number of street children in Pakistan is estimated to be anywhere between 1.2 million to 1.5 million, making it a host to one of the world's largest street children populations behind countries such as India and Egypt. There is a wide gap in standards of living between the upper and lower classes, giving rise to a large segment of the population (and subsequently, young children) living in poverty.^{[citation needed]} There have been efforts in the past by UNICEF and some NGOs to assist needy children through various programs and by opening rehabilitation centers; however, the situation still remains as a prominent socio-economic issue in Pakistan today.

Romania

A report of the Council of Europe of year 2000 estimated that there were approximately 1,000 street children in Bucharest alone. The prevalence of street children has lent to a burgeoning sex tourism business in Romania, though efforts have been made to decrease the number of street children.

Brazil

The Brazilian Government estimates that the number of children and adolescents who work or sleep on the streets falls at approximately 23,973^{[citation needed]} based on results from the national census mandated by the Human Rights Secretariat of the Presidency (SDH) and the Institute for Sustainable Development (Idesp).

The Philippines

Main article: Street children in the Philippines

According to the 1998 report "Situation of the Youth in the Philippines," there are about 1.5 million street children in the Philippines. Street children as young as 10 years old can be imprisoned alongside adults under the Vagrancy Act, which has in the past resulted in physical and sexual abuse.

Government and non-government responses

Responses by governments

While some governments have implemented programs to deal with street children, the general solution involves placing the children into orphanages, juvenile homes, or correctional institutions. Efforts have been made by various governments to support or partner with non-government organizations focused on aiding needy children.

NGO responses

Non-government organizations employ a wide variety of strategies to address the needs and rights of street children. Advocacy groups have pressed for the rights of homeless children, as well as amendments to the institutional treatment of said children. Residential facilities and aid have seen some distribution as well.^{[citation needed]}

In fiction

Horatio Alger's book Tattered Tom ; or, The Story of a Street Arab (1871) is an early example of street children in literature; following the tale of a homeless girl who lives by her wits on the streets of New York. Examples from popular fiction include Kipling's “Kim” as a street child in colonial India, and Gavroche in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. Fagin's crew of child pickpockets in "Oliver Twist" as well as Sherlock Holmes's "Baker Street Irregulars" attest to the presence of street children in 19th-century London.

See also

• Benposta
• Casa Alianza
• Covenant House
• Friends International
• Homelessness
• Kotjebi
• Orphan
• Relational care
• Runaway youth
• Street children in the Philippines
• Waif
• Pixote (movie)

External links

• The Hope Foundation: Offering protection, education and healthcare to street children in Kolkata, India
• Street Children in Gimbi, Ethiopia, including documentary of a specific boy
• Street Angels UK: Community, security and development for the people of Salvador, Brazil
• Streetconnect.org: A clearing house of information for and about homeless youth
• Hummingbird: a documentary about two NGOs in Brazil that work with street kids
• The Goodman Project: A foundation set up to help the street kids in India and Asia
• Street Children: Article on the Children's Rights Portal