Street Children’s Issues and the Role of SPARC

1.1       GENRAL BACKGROUND

Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”

Despite article 1 allowing a lower age of majority, there are rights in the Convention that continue to apply to all those under 18, regardless of the age of majority. These include the prohibition of the application of the death penalty for people under 18 and, in an Optional Protocol to the Convention, the prohibition of recruitment of those under 18 into the armed forces.

Other international instruments also use 18 as the age limit for determining when a person loses the right to the special protection to which children are entitled. Furthermore UNICEF and other key international organizations working with children use 18 as the defining age for their work.

The Convention recognizes that the way children exercise their rights and the limits imposed on the exercise of their rights can and should vary according to the age of the child. Article 5 states that:

States Parties shall respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents or, where applicable, the members of the extended family or community as provided for by local custom, legal guardians or other persons legally responsible for the child, to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the present Convention.

1.2       WHAT IS A STREET CHILD?

Street children facts

·         There are an estimated 100 million children living in the streets in the world today.

·         Children living on the streets are especially vulnerable to victimization, exploitation, and the abuse of their civil and economic rights.

·         International indifference to the problem has led to continual neglect and abuse of these children.

1.3       DEFINITION OF STREET CHILD

“Street child a homeless child especially one forsaken or orphaned; "street children beg or steal in order to survive"

“A street child, whatever the country of origin, is a minor, fully cut off from their family, who must struggle to survive.”

“Any girl or boy … 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” (UNHCR, 2000).

1.4       TYPES OF STREET CHILDREN’S

There are two groups of street children. The first group is ‘Children of the street’, which refers to children who are homeless, and streets in urban areas are their source of livelihood, where they sleep and live. The second group is ‘Children on the street’, who work and live on the streets in the daytime but return back home at night where they sleep, although some of them sleep occasionally on the streets (UNCHS, 2000). Nevertheless, there is no clear distinction between the two groups as they often differ from their common definition: some ‘children of the street’ may still have links with their families and some ‘children on the street’ often sleep on the street (UNICEF, 2001).

1.5       CAUSES OF STREET CHILDREN’S

There are two main causes of the phenomenon of street children. The first is the economic stress and poor conditions that families face due to industrialization and urbanization. The second cause is changes in the traditional family structure, especially when women became the main contributor to households’ economies (Patel, 1990; Roux and Smith, 1998; Lugalla and Mbwambo, 1999). Nevertheless, poverty cannot stand alone as the only reason behind the phenomenon of street children, as a comparative research conducted on street children and working children in Brazil shows that the per capital household income of families of street children is higher than that of working children’s families (Rizzini et al., 1994).

1.6       WHO ARE CONSIDERED STREET CHILDREN? 

Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) asserts that “States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.” Homelessness denies each one of those rights. According to an Inter-NGO Program on street children and youth, a street child is “any girl or boy who has not reached adulthood, 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, directed, and supervised by responsible adults.”

US AID has divided Street Children into Four Categories:

·         A ‘Child of the Streets': Children who have no home but the streets, and no family support. They move from place to place, living in shelters and abandoned buildings.

·         A ‘Child on the street': Children who visit their families regularly and might even return every night to sleep at home, but spends most days and some nights on the street because of poverty, overcrowding, sexual or physical abuse at home.

·         Part of a Street Family: These children live on sidewalks or city squares with the rest of their families. They may be displaced due to poverty, wars, or natural disasters. The families often live a nomadic life, carrying their possessions with them. Children in this case often work on the streets with other members of their families.

·         In Institutionalized Care: Children in this situation come from a situation of homelessness and are at risk of returning to a life on the street.