International Street Children’s Day is observed on 31st January every year to spread awareness among the general people to stand up jointly for the rights and welfare of street children.
Street children is a term used for poor and homeless children under 18 years of age, living in the streets of a village, town or city. They spend their lives on the streets and start facing every sort of hardship in their very early stage of life. They even don’t have the very necessities of life for livelihood.
According to studies, an exact number of street children cannot be determined exactly however it’s sure that the number is definitely in hundreds of millions worldwide.
Common Causes of Street Children
Poverty is considered as the first and foremost common cause of the street children. Poor families usually have a large number of family members and fewer resources to afford.
In such situations, the kids getting young leave their homes in search of some job or occupation to earn money.
Most of the time they are trapped with the people involved in illegal activities like drug supply etc. Such people use these young kids and spoil their lives in a very inhuman manner.
Un-education is another common reason for increasing the number of street children. The poor kids having no opportunities for free education from government or another welfare trust usually get scatter because of a lack of awareness.
Poor family relations is also an important reason for street children. The poor families either having no care or attention towards the young kids or sometimes they start beating the kids. This rude family behavior causes the children to run away from their homes.
Because of this ignorant attitude of their family members forces the kids to escape from such an atmosphere.
Overcrowded homes are also considered a valid reason for causing street children. In poor families sometimes they even don’t have enough space/room in the home to cater to the basic needs.
In such a situation, the immature kids run away from their homes in search of a better place to live, but they get scatter and lost their homes.
Family tragedies or hardships faced like war sometimes the situation of a country like war or some natural disaster causes the separation among the family members. They get separated from each other. In such a situation, the immature young kids get scatter and force to live in the streets.
Problems of Street Children
Spending life on the streets brings so many problems for the street children, some commonly faced problems are as follow:
- Street children Face the Hardships of cold and hot weather.
- Lack of basic livelihood needs like food, clothing, water, and shoes, etc.
- No safety or security.
- Get habitual of drug addiction.
- Get trap with criminally minded people.
- kidnapping and force to begging.
- Get sexually abuse.
- Force to do child labor.
- Get spoil their childhood and face the hardships in their early life.
- 10. Lack of education and supervision.
Children are children, irrespective of gender, race, country, and religion. They have some level of innocence and joyful hearts like our children at home.
International Street Children’s Day is a reminder for all of us to think about the basic rights of street children and do some effort to safeguard their rights individually, collectively, national and international levels to make this world a better space to live for every human soul.