09/02/2017
Street children in India
Page issues
Street child in New Delhi.
A street child in India is someone "for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood; and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults”.[1]
It is estimated that more than 400,000 street children in India exist.[2] Mainly because of family conflict, they come to live on the streets and take on the full responsibilities of caring for themselves, including working to provide for and protecting themselves. Though street children do sometimes band together for greater security, they are often exploited by employers and the police.[2][3]
Their many vulnerabilities require specific legislation and attention from the government and other organisations to improve their condition.[1]
Definition clarification Edit
Street children at a railway station in Medak district, Andhra Pradesh.
In the early years of research on street children, the term “street child” included any child that worked on the street. From research, however, different categories of children on the streets have been distinguished, while still recognizing that children’s complex experiences are difficult to define.[1] Mark W. Lusk, a prominent researcher of street children, developed four categories of children on the street from his research: children who work on the street but return to their families at night, children who work on the street but whose family ties are dwindling, children who live and work with their families on the street, and children who work and live on their own on the street.[4]
The term “street child” has come to refer only to the last group. UNICEF defines a street child as, “...any girl or boy[5] ... for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood; and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults”.[1] It is important to distinguish the group of children that live on their own on the streets because their lives vary greatly from those of children who simply work on the streets; they thus have different needs and require targeted attention.[3]
While 18 million children work on the streets of India[6] , it is estimated that only 5-20 percent of them are truly homeless and disconnected from their families.[3][4][7] Because the street children in India have unique vulnerabilities - the amount of time they spend on the street, their livelihood depending on the street, and their lack of protection and care from adults - they are a subgroup of the Indian population that deserve specific attention in order to ensure that their needs are known.[8] As the most vulnerable group of children in India according to UNICEF, they need to be understood as much as possible.[2]
Characteristics Edit
Number Edit
There is currently no official statistic of the number of street children in India.[9] The primary reason for this is that it is difficult to obtain accurate data about them because of their floating character.[2] Street children usually have no proof of identification and move often.[9] Of the 50,000 people in India that are officially reported as leaving home annually, 45 percent are under 16; this number, though, is likely very low.[10] Various studies have formulated estimates of certain cities. In the late 1980s, for instance, it was estimated that there were at least 100,000 street children in both Kolkata and Bombay.[2] Overall, estimates for the total number of street children in India range from 400,000-800,000.[2] There are some accurate estimates of one stream which adds to the number of the street children. There are cases of children running away from home. Majority of them use the trains to move. The number of such children who run away from home and land on railway platforms
