Preview

Street Children

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1167 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Street Children
Street child is a term for a child experiencing homelessness and who primarily resides 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 public spaces, without adult supervision or care. Street children are often subject to abuse, neglect, exploitation, or, in extreme cases, murder by "clean-up squads" that have been hired by local businesses or police. In Western societies, such children are commonly treated as homeless children, rather than criminals or solicitors.

The definition of "street children" is contested, but many practitioners and policymakers use UNICEF’s concept of boys and girls, aged under eighteen years, 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).[3]

Street children can be found in a large majority of the world's cities, with the phenomenon more prevalent in densely-populated urban hubs of developing or economically unstable countries, such as India, China, Russia, and countries in Africa. According to a report from the Consortium for Street Children, a United Kingdom (UK)-based consortium of related NGOs, UNICEF estimated that 100 million children were growing up on urban streets around the world. Fourteen years later, UNICEF similarly reported, "The latest estimates put the numbers of these children as high as 100 million" (UNICEF, 2002: 37). More recently the organization added, "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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Tents under highways, cardboard blowing in the wind, begging for money, eating out of trash cans. All of those things are what 3.5 million people, half of them children, experience every day (“National Coalition for the Homeless”).A homeless person is one who shall lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, at any given time. Most of the homeless are those with a mental illness, or the unemployed. (“Facts and Figures: The Homeless”). Knowing that oneself cannot provide for him/herself is a devastating realization, especially if children are involved in the situation.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were some limitations that were placed upon his research since the diverse nature of the city makes it quit difficult to reside exclusively with his research group thus forcing him to reside in four different locations. In order for him to gather informant, a list was created of all the different street occupations in which the child street laborers were engaged in on a PENNAT database along with distinguishing between part-time or full-time workers. Many of his data gathering consisted of participant observation, tape- recorded semi- structured interviews, peer relations, and pure observation. Through these different techniques, the author was able to get a grasp on the practical economics of child street labor, along with confirming the truth of the children’s response to many of his questions concerning their labor intensities. The author’s true ethical consideration throughout his research was to represent the lives of the child street laborers as being more than children who “got the short end of the stick” in life, but to allow them to be listened to, to observe how they really work to make a living in a life that things are not always given to…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Community – areas of poverty may have insufficient resources for children and young people; like playgrounds, playgroups, youth clubs and sports facilities. These areas tend to have a higher rate of crime, so parents don’t feel that it is safe enough for their children to play freely in the community.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    To be homeless is to not have a home or a permanent place of residence. Nationwide, there is estimated to be 3.5 million people that are homeless, and roughly 1.35 million of them are children. It is shown that homeless rates, which are the number of sheltered beds in a city divided by the cities population, have tripled since the 1980 's (National Coalition for Homeless, 2002). Worldwide, it is estimated that 100 million children live and work on the streets. Homeless children are more at risk than anyone else, and are among the fastest growing age groups of homelessness. Single women with children represent the fastest growing group of homeless, accounting for about 40% of the people that are becoming homeless today.…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Children who work on the streets typically have little or no knowledge of their rights, leaving them especially susceptible to exploitation both as juveniles and later as adults. Children who beg have also been found by UNICEF to have much higher instances of HIV-infection due to lack of awareness and supervision on the streets.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Homeless Families In America, Jonathan Kozol focuses on four important issues of poor children under six: Who they are, where they live, why they are poor, and the risks poor children face. The information presented pertains to children who live in houses and apartments because this is the population founded by household surveys. "According to three national studies homeless children aged 16 and under, somewhere 41,000 and 106,000 children are literally homeless at any given time" (36). Homeless meaning they live in shelters, churches, or public places with no permanent residence. "Between 39,000- 296,000 are precariously housed, meaning they live with either relatives or doubled up with friends" (38). Why are poor families with young children poor? It is believed that children are poor because their parents are poor. Child poverty can only be reduced by attacking the multiple causes of family poverty. "Children under the age of six with single mothers are much more likely to be poor than…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Panter-Brick, Catherine. "Street Children, Human Rights, and Public Health: A Critique and Future Directions." Annual Review of Anthropology 31. (2002): 147-71. Web. 3 Oct 2009. .…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    The street kids bond on a personal level and become “family” mainly because of their shared traumatic experiences. Be that of volatile home environments or family lives, or other traumatic life experiences. Other street kids that left home in search of freedom and independence bonded and became…

    • 1671 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Did you know that the average age of a homeless person is a 9 year old boy? There are more homeless children then there are elderly and adults. In fact as of 2009 more than 1.5 million children are living without homes in the United States and 1.16 million children today will not graduate. A part of that makes up nearly 42 percent of children who are under the age of six. During the transition of adolescence to young adults the numbers of homeless women decrease while it continues to increase for males. Research and personal experience has taught that children without homes will continually go through a lack of uninterrupted schooling, reassuring routines, adequate healthcare, sustaining relationships, safety, comfort and privacy. These are all factors that endure everlasting scars (Coalition for the Homeless, 2010).…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Landrigan, P. (2005, February). Children as a Vulnerable Population. Human & Ecological Risk Assessment, 11(1), 235-238. Retrieved August 1, 2009, doi:10.1080/10807030590920051.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Incarceration

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Living in poverty is an extreme strain on children whose mothers are imprisoned and fathers are not involved in their lives. They are affected by the stresses and strains of life in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, subsidized housing complexes with high crime rates, poor nutrition and an ever present sense of want. Growing up in the context of poverty is already a challenge, even without the added stress of…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Feral Children

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “... Are we a product of our genes or are we a product of our experiences?...” (Perry, Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children, 2002). For years researchers debated whether or not nature or nurture contributes the most to the development of a child. This can continue to be debated in the case of feral children. Feral children can be defined as children who have been neglected. These children have limited or no contact with humans. Feral children or wild children are deprived of the love and care from family. Feral children lack social and emotional skills. That is to say that a feral child is unable to feel empathy. It has been reported that some wild children survive in the wilderness, raised by animals or raised in isolated confinement. How does this condition affect the behaviour and development of these children?…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In 2013, 2,483,539 million children were without a place to call home in the United States -- a historically high rate in this country (Bassuk et al., 2014). Unfortunately this social problem isn?t showing signs of slowing. The number of homeless families is steadily increasing with a shocking eight percent increase from 2012 to 2013 (Bassuk et al., 2014). Even more troubling is the increase in homeless children, specifically. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, children account for 37% of the overall homeless population. This number saw an increase from 1.6 million to 2.5 million from 2010 to 2013, an increase of almost…

    • 2672 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Homeless Youth

    • 2128 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Availability of housing facilities is of significance in the life of children/youths in the society. Homeless youths are the individuals that are under the age of eighteen years who lacks consistent place to stay or whose residence is a private or public shelter that is meant to give a temporal accommodation. America is the most industrialized and a superpower in the word but it has millions of residents who live below the poverty line that is set by the United Nations. Many of these people are young people/youths who lack proper shelter and they are therefore homeless Even though it is difficult to establish the exact population of the homeless youths in the United States of America, the Department of Justice through the office of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention estimated the population to be about 1682900 and these youths are in the age bracket of 15 and 17 years. Also, the National Coalition for the Homeless has carried out some studies and released a report which shows that the youth homelessness is continuously increasing in America. The foundation of the factors that leads to youth homelessness in America is based on the deficiency of the necessary basic requirements. Some of the causes of homelessness include the absence of social support to the youths, presence of economic insecurity, lack of affordable shelter/housing facilities, divorce, drug or alcohol abuse, lack of emergency help, existence of various forms of violence in the homes, some health conditions and behaviors and the participation of youths in the child welfare systems.…

    • 2128 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays