In this essay we are going to talk about the Street Children. In whole world there are millions and millions of children who due to poverty live on the streets. These children are called street children as they live on the streets of any village, city or town. They are poor and homeless children for whom even wastelands are there home and it has become their source of livelihood.
Short Essay On Street Children
Street children are not only those children be it a girl or a boy who have to live on the streets due to poverty but it also includes some street children specially in the more developed countries, who are forced to leave home and they are included as a subcategory part known as “thrown away children.” These street children who are called thrown away children are more presumably to come from the homes of single parents.
All these street children are deprived from education, health care, food and even proper shelter. The term “street children” was coined by Henry Mayhew in the year 1851. Before the term “street children” was coined they were referred as homeless of abandoned. A term that is used in the Colombia for the street children of either sex is gamines which is also sometimes used for street girls.
There are many factors which also causes the children to live on the streets like economic, social, political and even wars. An important social factor is families break down. During wars and armed conflicts parents get killed and homes and shelters get burnt, damaged, etc. for which the children becomes alone with no parents and hence no home, shelter or place to live. Even, due to cultural factors sometimes children becomes homeless and end up being street children. One such example is in some parts of Uganda and Congo some children are forced to leave their families and homes as they are brainwashed to have suspicion on their families being witches who actually brings bad luck. In the country, Afghanistan, young girls are forced to leave their homes of they are accused of “honor crimes” which will shame their families.
Children may also end up being street children due to religious factors. One such example is in Nigeria in the far northern parts children are forced to leave their families and homes to be apprehended under a mallam.
Children can become street children if they have lost their contact with parents or other family members while visiting to a fair or for any other reason. Children of prostitutes also gets disowned. Some respectable parents have disowned or rejected their children because he/she is a result of an affair. Or parents have disowned their children just because they are handicapped or have some other medical problems or sometimes if the child is a girl. In such cases, the background or problem is not always poverty.
Many street children are regarded as the victim of economic violence. One of the major issue regarding the street children is the infringement of their human right and their perceptibility on the streets. The numbers of street children are growing more and more as time is passing by and this is a huge issue. The street children have no other choice than to do stealing, begging, sniffing, loitering and peddling. Street children are exposed to physical abuse by some strangers or even by the police or sometimes murdered right then and there. They are also sold to people older than them to various parts of a country and sometimes outside India and other countries.
These street children has devastating effects on themselves and not just them but also on the society they belong to. These street children do not get to eat much as their parents are unemployed and cannot provide them with the basic necessity that is food and some even do not have parents so they do not get to eat more and thus, they suffer from malnutrition and are undernourished from a very young age. Being undernourished is not good for health specially at such a young age it causes very bad side effects on them and their health such as shorter life expectancy, malnutrition which will effect their immune system.
They do not even receive education and thus, they won’t be able to protect their future and cannot even change their future for a better life and hence, will face a lot of obstacles and difficulties in their future. The problems they are facing now such as inadequate food, no shelter, no clear drinking water and even suffers from bad health and cannot even receive basis health care, etc. and they will keep facing them in their future.
Click Here: Interesting Articles To Read
These street children also are used by criminal gangs and terrorists for their own purpose to do violence and spread terrorism just by giving them the temptation of money as these criminals knows very well that these children need money to get food, water, education and even to get shelter. These street children at such a young age cannot differentiate between what is wrong and what is right, what they should and what they should not. They get exposed to very bad situations like sexual violations, prostitution, drug consumption, slavery, working in factories, etc.
Specially in the third world countries these street children suffer more and do not get any basic needs and they become an easy target for the flesh traders. These children are at high risk because the people do not use contraceptives not they ask their clients to do so. Hence, there is a high chance of getting sexually transmitted disease or getting pregnant. They are also subject to exploitation, neglect, abuse or murdered by some clean up squads who might have been hired by police or local businesses. When they will grow up they will become a good targets for crimes. All these means that the street children can the criminals of tomorrow and they will oppress the other innocent and homeless children.
Street children suffers a lot and even a little help and solution will solve this problem. Some solutions are provided by the ESCWA which are listed below:
People need to understand the situation of the street children better through some research.
A quantitative and qualitative research should be done and a data should be prepared to find out the real cause that puts the boys and girls being the street children and at risk. And this should also show the links between violence, inequality, exclusion, exploitation and poverty.
A qualitative research should also be made to inspect the street children’s everyday life and how the government and society treats them and how their attitude towards these street children is.
A research to find out the existing policies, legislation, planning, institutional arrangements which are made for the street children and how effective they are.
- To shift the path to the street children from the legalistic to a rehabilitative interventions, preventive and protective by focusing on the root causes, the economic an not just only on the symptoms and the social sector respectively.
The rights of the street children should be mentioned as citizens and not as some charity cases.
Some specific institutions and actions should be made for the street children.
Street children should not be seen only as some victims but also as citizens and the agencies should take part in decisions which are regarding the street children.
- To implement and keep track of all the national and international commitments that are made to the children
To check that all items of the international protocol or agreement which concerns are children’s right and child labour elimination are relocated into the legislation.
And to check that all the procedures of the enforcement and prosecution are executed and are in place.
We can also sometimes go and visit these street children and do something for them like distributing food, clothes which we do not wear anymore or other clothes, some water bottles so that they can have clear drinking water. And even work with the NGOs to help them out as much as possible. Spread the awareness about the primary schools where mid-day meals are provided so that at least in the temptation of free food they can at least receive some basic education.
The causes of street children are huge and their effect is also very harmful and dangerous. But the causes can be reduced through the cooperation of government and people by spreading awareness, improving the economy of the country, etc. The causes are many and so can be the solutions if we truly try our best to help them out. If they are given proper facilities such as food, shelter, education, clear drinking facilities and health care then they can do better and have a bright future and live a comfortable life and it will also increase the employment rate in the countries specially in the developing countries which will benefit both them and the nation. So, we should not hate them but help them to have a proper life.