problem statement

Most of the children living in the streets right now left their homes at the age of eight because of various problems that happened in their families.  These problems were mainly caused by stepmothers, family conflicts, poverty, lack of awareness, and orphanages.  Some children left in search of better opportunities in the big cities.  Most of those children living in the streets depend on begging from others, working as porters and construction workers in the construction sites inside of the cities and their neighboring villages.

Constraints and challenges: Dangerous and unhealthy living environments and the resulting untreated illnesses and frequent injuries that entail. Lack of adequate emotional support, food, shelter and safe places to sleep and store belongings, leading to inability of street children to save money. Dependency of newcomers to the street on more ‘experienced’ street children. Involvement of street children in criminal activities.

Street children in Nepal are seen sniffing glue and sleeping aimlessly in the street.

They are not more than 15 years of age who are always in a group or if not in the group they are found sleeping in the street.

The children mostly belong to the rural areas and they have runaway due to various domestic problems in the village.

The family problems, lack of education, food, security and moreover they ran away due to poverty to take shelter in the streets of the capital Kathmandu and other urban areas.

According to ILO’s rapid assessment on rag-picking children, there are about 4,000 children working in this sector, which is considered one of the worst forms of child labor. Among the rag pickers, 88% are boys and 12% girls.  In average, rag pickers work 6 hours a day and earn N Rs. 87 per day.  They concentrate in the areas like junkyards, temples, market centers, cinema halls, airports, bus terminals, hardware shops, tourist centers, etc. while they do their work.  While on the street they face problems of hunger, shelter, clothes, etc.  Similarly, face problems from police, “Dada” (bullies), gang etc.  With all these problems and tensions, they lead their complex life.

‘I left home thinking that the carpet factory would hire me, but they told me the authorities did not want people of my age to work.  It might be a good thing done by the government, but where does it leave people like me?’ asks a desperate Shivam.  Indeed, where did that leave him?  On the Kathmandu streets and begging…ecause Nepal’s dependency on child labor is so deeply entrenched, only half of the children are allowed to complete the fifth grade of school. The ILO reports showed that. Children are employed in eighteen different sectors like in brick kiln, coal mines, child prostitution, mug house, leather processing industry, coal mine, stone quarrying, match factory, house-hold helper, bonded labor, street children, mine and carpet factory, drug trafficking, transport sector etc. About 1.4 million children are not provided the salary for their work and 1.27 million children are working in worst forms of labor.

Street children are the most vulnerable lot. Sexual abuse is hidden but a widely prevalent suffering among them. No child is safe and away from this cauldron of suffering.  Approximately 99 per cent of them are physically and psychologically abused. Child sexual abuse may include fondling a child’s genitals, masturbation, oral-genital contact, digital penetration, and vaginal and anal intercourse.  The other ways a child can be abused with are direct physical contact, such as sex by exposures, voyeurism and child pornography, use of obscene language, also referred to as non-contact abuse, shows a research conducted jointly by CPSC NGO Nepal, CPS INT Belgium and VOE Nepal.

Males are the predominant perpetrators of sexual abuse against street children. On average, there are three male abusers for every two female abusers. On an average, 40 per cent of sexually abusive episodes are perpetrated by street-living children and adults as well as 40 per cent by non-street living adults.  Non street-living adults include relatives, shop, hotel or restaurant owners and workers or any Nepali adult not living on the street. The street is clearly the chief location for all types of sexual abuses, accounting for one in three incidents occurring.

introduction

Street children is a term used to refer to children who live on the streets of a city. They are basically deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old, and their population between different cities is varied.
Street children live in junk boxes, parks or on the street itself. A great deal has been written defining street children, but the primary difficulty is that there are no precise categories, but rather a continuum, ranging from children who spend some time in the streets and sleep in a house with ill-prepared adults, to those who live entirely in the streets and have no adult supervision or care.
A widely accepted set of definitions, commonly attributed to [amnesty international) divides street children into two main categories:

1. Children on the street are those engaged in some kind of economic activity ranging from begging to vending. Most go home at the end of the day and contribute their earnings to their family. They may be attending school and retain a sense of belonging to a family. Because of the economic fragility of the family, these children may eventually opt for a permanent life on the streets.
2. Children of the street actually live on the street (or outside of a normal family environment). Family ties may exist but are tenuous and are maintained only casually or occasionally.

Street children exist in many major cities, especially in developing countries, and may be subject to abuse, neglect, exploitation, or even, in extreme cases, murder by "cleanup squads" hired by local businesses or police.

Street children exist in all of Nepal’s major cities and towns. As the population grows, and urban poverty spreads, the number of children living and working on the streets is increasing. Because of the extreme nature of their situations and lack of adult support, many street children are misused and exploited. Ultimately, most of these children remain trapped in the vicious cycle of street life, and often with very limited support.

Due to the current political situation and recent armed conflict, the number of street children has increased. Though there is no current, reliable estimate into the number of children living on the streets, it is clear that numbers are considerably more than they were before the conflict situation escalated – much of this is a result of the large number of displaced people from village areas across Nepal.

There are obviously many hardships that street children face, but one of the greatest challenges is the general misunderstanding by society. Street children are negatively viewed and stigmatized by many people, and often labeled with the derogatory term "Khate." Ultimately, this social misunderstanding makes it extremely difficult for street children to leave the street and become respected members of the community they live in.