Street Children: The Paradox of Untapped Human Resources

Abstract

Children who are susceptible to street life are estimated to be 100 million globally, comprising of (a) street living children who have migrated either temporarily or permanently and live on the streets without their families, (b) street-working children—who spend most of their daytime working on the streets to earn a living and may return home and (c) children from families dwelling on the streets. These children easily become victims to abuse of all forms, violence, exploitation and inhuman treatment by antisocials and criminals and they remain vulnerable and helpless to further victimization. Challenges they fight with on a daily basis are many—lack of shelter, clothing and food, inaccessibility to education and health care, unaddressed chronic physical illness such as gastrointestinal diseases and STDs and other physical alignments and psychological disturbances, maladaptive personality traits, alcohol and psychoactive drug addiction are some of them. The search for the means of survival often drags them into gambling and robbery, thereby increasing the probability of them maintaining a severe criminal record later in life. A high proportion of the children being raped, kidnapped, trafficked and killed are from the streets and the number is ever increasing. It is inevitable to pay ample attention to such children at disadvantage for two important reasons—(a) to ensure that this valuable human resource is given the right ambience to evolve to its best version and be utilized for nation-building, and (b) to protect their right and dignity as citizen of the nation. This chapter is an attempt to understand the issues faced by these little lives on the streets. With the aid of hands-on experience and case studies, their miserable living conditions, deprivations and challenges are explained along the lines of humanitarianism as well as denial of justice. To understand the situation better, the number of governmental, legislative and constitutional measures taken in line with this social issue are also discussed. The chapter proposes various preventive, interventional and rehabilitative action plans for the betterment of the lives of children on the streets. This chapter closes by recommending a few effective steps to ensure the implementation of needed intervention programs through earnest efforts.