THE WORLD OF STREET CHILDREN

Who are ‘Street Children’
The phenomenon of “street children” is universally accepted today. A few decades ago, children wandering the streets were identified by their occupation or by what they did to survive. “ Rag pickers”, “ vendors”, “shoe-shine boys”, “porters”, etc., were terms used to describe them. Today with increasing awareness among governmental and international agencies, “ street children” are seen as an especially vulnerable group worthy of special interest, attention and intervention.

The term “Street Children” in a very narrow sense may suggest children such as those popularly known as ‘rag pickers’ in India, ‘parking boys’ in Kenya, ‘Peggy boys’ in the Philippines, ‘pivetes’ in Brazil, ‘pajaro frutero’ in Peru and ‘homeless youth’ or ‘runaways’ in some developed countries (Agrawal, 1999). While all these do qualify as street children, their descriptions do not constitute an adequate working definition.

UNICEF (1988), describes street children in the following manner: The term denotes not only a place of congregation, but also a certain set of working and living conditions. The vast majorities are on the street to make a living for their families and / or themselves. For these children, the street is, above all, a work place. Second, they spend large amounts of time on the street frequently because of the low returns on their labour. Third, most make their way into the informal sector as petty hawkers, shoe-shine boys, scavengers of raw materials or even thieves and street prostitutes. Fourth, by the nature of their work and life, they are normally on their own, largely unprotected by adults.

For these reasons above all others, they are vulnerable to many dangers and abuses, and they tend to receive few services essential to their protection and development. UNICEF includes all children described above in the category of “Children in Especially Difficult Circumstances” (CEDC). The UNICEF definition concentrates on four major dimensions namely, the place of congregation or coming together is the street, there is a large amount of time spent on the street, the level of working and living conditions is low, and there is a lack of protection.

Based on the relationship of the child with its family, the United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF (1988, in Agrawal, 1999), and the World Health Organization (WHO Publication at) distinguished between three categories of street children, namely:

a) Children on the Street: This category comprises children working on the street but maintaining more or less regular ties with their families. Their focus is home to which they return at the end of the working day and have a sense of belonging to the local community.

b) Children of the Street: Children in this category maintain only tenuous relations with their families, visiting them only occasionally. They see the street as their home where they seek shelter, food and companionship.

c) Abandoned Children: Children in this category are also children of the street but are differentiated from that category (category ‘b’ above) by the fact that they have cut off all ties with their biological families and are completely on their own.

Taking into account the definitions, descriptions and categorizations mentioned above, Agrawal (1999), suggested the following definition of street children:

A street child is one who:
Lives on the streets, waste land, or public space most of the time;
Works in the streets on jobs of low status and low income,
Lives in the exposed conditions of the street,
Has no or little parental supervision or other social protection,
Has either continuous, intermittent or no family contact at all,
Is vulnerable to the hazards of urbanization and urban living conditions.

Agrawal (1999) also clarifies for us that street children and child laborers, who are sometimes referred to synonymously, are in fact two different groups. “Not all children are child workers and not all child workers are street children. While street children include non-working children who are beggars, gamblers, and the like, child laborers include children tied to their homes and who work in the family economic activity without losing the advantages of parental love, care, affection, support and protection” (Agrawal, 1999, p. 21). There is however, a considerable portion of overlap between the two.

At Shelter Don Bosco we are concerned primarily with the third category of children as defined by UNICEF and WHO, the rootless and roofless street child. This child, as understood by Shelter is one who has no adult supervision or guardianship of any kind, hence ROOTLESS, and no structure, either temporary or permanent to live in, hence ROOFLESS. At present our efforts towards prevention of this phenomenon have led us to broaden our horizons. The children living with families on the pavements have already come under our purview and the non- school going children from slum communities and others at risk are also being reached out to.

Why are children on the street

Socio-Structural Causes: The phenomenon of street children is a repercussion of industrialization and urbanization. In the race for technological advancement, industrial growth centers have come up all over the world thus upsetting the age old patterns in which people lived and worked in their native villages and towns. The most crucial among such development induced patterns is the migration of people from rural to urban areas. Dwindling opportunities in the rural areas and the concomitant lure of life in towns and cities have resulted in a ‘pull’ towards the urban areas.

People start migrating from relatively undeveloped regions of the country to the developing regions often leaving behind their families and homes. Their housing however, finds no place in the city’s development plans. Uprooted from the only place they knew and could call their home, these people (men, women and children alike) take to the streets as their refuge. With a great deal of difficulty and rarely any social support, these migrant families barely manage a roof over their heads in jhuggis, chawls, jhoparpatties and other differently named slum clusters.

But, there is little that they can do for their children who wander on the streets while they work until late hours to make ends meet. Some children are fortunate to have a ‘home’ that they can retire to at the end of the day; many others have no other choice but to seek shelter on the pavements, in public places and so on.

Economic Causes: It is not that children have to be on the streets because there is no space for them in the shanty that the parents might have managed to erect in the city. Often, the earnings of the parents are insufficient to secure even the family’s most basic needs. Consequently the children have to be sent to work to supplement the family’s income.

Since these children are young, uneducated and unskilled they do not find work easily in the organized sector. Hence, they work largely in the unorganized sector and frequently end up in trades such as shoe-shining, rag-picking and so on.

It is not only economic compulsions that drive the children onto the streets. Social stratification on the basis of caste, creed, gender, community, ethnicity, etc. also results in geographic, social, cultural and political compulsions. The economic compulsions are however, more directly visible and apparent than others.

Quality of Education: Many street children are school dropouts. The dropout rate in India is quite high (36%-52%), the most common reasons for which are, the poor quality of education in the country, the irrelevance and monotony of the syllabi taught in schools, and child labour. Besides this, a number of schools in the country have only a single teacher to deal with very large numbers of children.

Sometimes these teachers are not even adequately trained to deal with children or even to teach them in interesting ways. The teachers depend on traditional methods of corporal punishment to discipline the children which in turn develop a phobia against school and education in the minds of the young ones. As a consequence, the entire learning atmosphere is not pleasurable, but rather, seems persecutory to many.

Many other children (especially girls) are forced to drop-out from school in order to work with their parents or to look after their younger siblings while their parents are at work. As a result they may escape to the cities in the hope that they may be able to procure an education for themselves.

Natural Calamities: Families are often displaced and torn apart (physically, socially, economically and culturally) as a consequence of natural calamities like floods, droughts, earthquakes and so on. Relief operations from various sources not only arrive long after the disaster but are also woefully inadequate. There are many ‘red tape procedures’ to be followed before relief becomes truly operative. Subsequently, the children orphaned by these calamities are compelled to take to the streets merely to survive.

Cruelty and Abuse: Many parents today still use the traditionally upheld methods of disciplining children by hitting them with belts, canes, sticks and so on. In families where one / both the parents is / are alcoholic(s) this cruelty is more pronounced (such as the parent flinging the child against the wall, sexual abuse, etc…) and the children may sustain more severe injuries. The young, gentle mind of a child is not designed to cope with such severe trauma and pain and when the situation becomes unbearable, the only escape the child knows is physical escape from the home - the source of the pain and torture.

Neglect: In large and / or economically deprived families, parents get little opportunity to devote time to their children. With both parents at work, the children go unattended for hours. In many cases, older siblings have to look after the younger ones. There is too little for them to share by way of food and the younger ones in particular do not always get their proper share. The neglected and deprived among the children feel not only insecure, but also unjustly treated. They may even doubt their parents’ love for them. Thus, in a state of rejection and hurt, they may turn hostile and run away from home in search of other places where they can belong and feel loved.

Broken Homes: Children living with a single parent or a stepfather or stepmother, or children who are orphans, are most prone to emotional trauma and often suffer from feelings of rejection and insecurity that may drive them out in search of a place where they may be better accepted and loved.

Peer Group Influence: A few children leave their homes for street life because of the influence of their peers. Some children find themselves on the streets as a result of their peers encouraging them to leave the conflict-ridden homes they live in. This may be done by the peers glorifying the idea of city life, or of independent life out of the home.

Influence of Media: The media today also plays quite a significant role in the problem of children leaving home. Films typically dramatize, in an exaggerated fashion, the hero who leaves his home in the village, moves to the city and makes a fabulous life for himself. The newspapers, soap operas and other audio visual media over emphasize ‘city life’ as being ‘exciting’, ‘adventurous’, and ‘totally filled with fun’ and at the same time fail to realistically present the disadvantages of the same. As a result, children do not think twice about leaving their homes for the cities because they feel they will definitely have no problems with city life. Their illusions are shattered when they actually come into the cities, and they are then faced with the decision of admitting their mistake, giving up their pride and returning home or staying on in the city in an attempt to prove themselves right.

DIFFICULTIES & PROBLEMS FACED ON THE STREET: Street children live in an environment devoid of the affection, love, care and comfort of a family life. They are impelled by circumstances to struggle to fulfill their most basic needs like food and shelter at a very tender, impressionable age. Street children are deprived of all the things they covet in their childhood and are therefore aware of the chasm of difference that exists between them and ‘normal’ children.

Early on in life, these children learn to make their own decisions in all matters since there is no one to help them or guide them. Most of all, they are physically & emotionally worn down by the need to fend for themselves and make a living at such a young age. Following is a description of the main problems that street children have to face under three main categories (not exclusive ) namely:

1. Physical Problems
2. Psychological Problems
3. Social Problems

Physical Problems

Lack of Adequate Nutrition: Even though many street children can usually get some amount of food to eat, they do not have nutritious or balanced diets. This deficiency thus manifests itself in the form of anemia, malnutrition, and vitamin deficiencies).

Homelessness: The children who choose the streets as their home face the most acute problems related to shelter. They are vulnerable to all ranges of weather conditions be it the burning heat of summer, the rainstorms or the chilly winter nights. These children do not suffer merely from physical homelessness, but also from a psychological homelessness since they have ‘nowhere to belong’. The homes they leave behind no longer remain their havens; the streets provide no comfort, and society does not accept them.

Health Problems: Street children live in an atmosphere of continued physical and mental strain. Many of them rummage through the garbage to find food; others go hungry for days drinking water or taking to drugs to diminish their pangs of hunger. All street children suffer from severe malnutrition and various kinds of deficiencies. The consumption of tobacco, alcohol or drugs retards their growth at an early age.

Due to exposure to dust and other pollutants while they work near traffic junctions and other congested places, they suffer from bronchitis, asthma and even severe tuberculosis. Since they do not have the opportunity to bathe for several days at a time, and because of the unhygienic conditions in which they live, they are prone to skin diseases such as scabies, ulcers and rashes.

Many street children have no knowledge / have limited knowledge about hygiene or Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). As a result, they encounter sexual and reproductive health problems such as STDs, HIV / AIDS (common to street boys and girls), unwanted pregnancies, premature births, unsafe abortions (specific to street girls). The lack of opportunity to ever visit a doctor further compounds all these health problems.

Psychological Problems

A Stressful Past: The situations and events that lead children to take to the streets may have an on-going impact on their well-being and may deprive them of emotional, economic, and other kinds of support for many successive years. The past also plays a role in predisposing street children to become more vulnerable to emotional, social, and psychological disorders in the future.

A Transitory Lifestyle: Street children frequently move from district to district, town to town, and city to city. In majority of instances, they do this by choice, but at other times, they are forced to keep moving in order to hide from the police, welfare authorities, and gangsters. This evasive lifestyle results in problems of social isolation and loneliness and leads to difficulties in developing emotional attachments to other human beings.

Substance Abuse: Many street children resort to using psychoactive substances (such as alcohol and drugs) in an attempt to escape from the overwhelming pressure of their traumatic past and their daily problems. This, in turn, can lead to medical problems due to overdoses, an increase in the probability of accidents, violence and unprotected sex. Over time, it can lead to complications such as brain and liver damage, as also to diseases like HIV / AIDS.

Unlearning of Learned Behaviour: All children learn a set of moral values and moral behaviour in their early years of family life. The children who leave home and begin to live on the streets soon realize that the values their family taught them (such as honest, integrity, etc.) are not conducive to their survival on the streets. At times they are forced to steal food and money because they have none of their own. They have to swallow their pride in order to beg for food or money. They learn to live without a daily bath, in unhygienic and unsanitary conditions. They learn to let go of their shame when they have no clothes or when they have only an undergarment to wear.

Social Problems

Deprivation of Needs and Lack of Resources and Opportunities: The varied needs of street children are rarely met. They frequently go hungry, wear torn, tattered and dirty clothes or sometimes, no clothes at all. They have no permanent place to stay, no educational facilities, no facilities for hygiene and in brief, no facilities at all. Psychologically, they are exploited and abused, thus their basic needs of security and happiness are not met. Socio-culturally, they lack opportunities for healthy recreation and lack social acceptance.

Exploitation: Children on the street have to work to survive. Since they have no skills with which to bargain for fair pay or to fight for their rights, they are very vulnerable to employers who look to make a profit on them. Frequently, they are forced to work for 10-12 hours a day for very meagre payment or in exchange for just one square meal a day. Besides all this, abuse and harassment - either physical or sexual, by persons in authority, be they police personnel or others is not uncommon.

Besides the police, the street children are frequently taken advantage of by the underworld gangsters or by older street boys who bully them and use them to achieve their own ends. If the children do not oblige, they are threatened, beaten and sometimes, in extreme cases, may even be killed.

Stigmatization: People in society generally perceive street children as difficult children who are out to cause trouble. The general misconception is that street children are addicts, uncontrollable and violent, have no emotions or moral values, and so on. As a result of these misconceptions, people tend to be unsympathetic and indifferent to the actual plight of street children. This lack of social acceptance is what pushes them away from mainstream society and forces them to survive on the fringes of the social system.