Home ›› 19 Dec 2021 ›› Opinion
Over the past few decades, the issue of street children has gained prominence and acknowledgement internationally, in broader academic platforms, and across contemporary policy debates. However, widespread consideration for children and their rights is not new. In fact, the 1980s and 1990s saw a growing global concern for their rights and welfare. This culminated in the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations’ General Assembly in 1989. Several 2030. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also aim a safer and fairer world for children, addressing practices that adversely affect them, such as child labor, child marriage, and female genital mutilation (FGM). We can appreciate the progress that has been made on the protection of children’s rights, but one should also acknowledge the huge gap in the implementation of policies, plans, and actions when it comes to dealing with a minor who is severely dispossessed. In line with this general concern for the rights and welfare of children in especially difficult circumstances, is the growing international problem of the rising numbers of street children in urban areas, mostly within the developing world. There is a clear tendency to examine the issue through the framework of poverty. Many scholars, policy makers, and researchers believe that children gravitate to the streets because they live in economically impoverished households; this is called the poverty hypothesis. The number of street children in India and Bangladesh is increasing.
Nevertheless, poverty rates in the regions have been falling consistently in the last few decades excluding the current Covid-19 pandemic period. If an increase or a decrease in poverty rates does not fully explain variation in the number of homeless kids, then the “poverty hypothesis” does not hold up to the reality. In order to fill this gap, it is important to understand the different dynamics that are associated with the problem: this is a social challenge not limited to the abundance of street children in several regions of the world and the prevalence of poverty in the developing world. Other factors must be understood to get a grasp of the phenomenon. According to a 2018 survey in The Times of India (TOI), India was considered to be the most dangerous country in the world for women. In 2011, the same survey had ranked India in fourth place, and Pakistan in third. These rankings illustrate the prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) and domestic violence, in general, in some South Asian countries. If a country is unsafe for women, it is logical to argue that it is equally dangerous for the most vulnerable population: children, especially girls, and minors living in the streets. This paper further argues that the issue of street children in South Asia cannot be managed simply by transferring resources to control poverty rates, as these measures don’t take into account the prevalence of domestic violence in South Asia.
In addition to the fact that there are inherent difficulties associated with calculating the number of minors living in the streets within a region at a particular point in time, most countries are reluctant to and indifferent about exposing these numbers. As a result, governments end up turning a blind eye to this.
Many people still believe that poverty plays an integral role in influencing a child’s decision to leave his/her home and take refuge on the streets. The cited “poverty hypothesis” is based on the rationale that a minor chooses to move to the streets because they are economically disadvantaged. In the absence of sufficient breadwinners within their households, many kids either voluntarily move to or are forced to earn a livelihood in the streets. Researcher Teresita Silva explored the issue in her study on street children in the Philippines. While looking into the main causes that drive them to the streets, she pointed out that “poverty represents a glaring indicator of both the helplessness and the powerlessness of these children and their families and the inability of developing nations to meet the basic needs of their people. Within South Asia, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan present a unique opportunity to conduct a comparative study because these countries are alike in several aspects. In addition to mirroring each other’s cultural and historical backgrounds, they have similar economic statuses. Cultural features of violence are prevalent in all of them. Moreover, street children are quite common in each of these countries. According to the United States Census Bureau, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan are among the ten most populous countries in the world, and they also have significant numbers of minors living in the streets.
The Covid-19 pandemic created an economic crisis driving 8m more Americans below the poverty line in 2020. Globally, the pandemic led to the loss of the equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs in 2020, and 119 million worldwide slipped into poverty. At least 340m children across the world have vitamin deficiencies. In the US, 13 million children face hunger. Every child, in every country, should have the freedom and opportunity to reach their full potential; to live free from hunger, safe from harm, with the freedom to learn, be healthy and grow up in families that are economically secure. Too many children’s opportunities are destroyed by poverty, conflict, discrimination and the choices made by governments. The core focus must be on supporting their health and wellbeing, including consideration of the trade policies that nations should adopt to build a better future for the world’s children. A fairer system for children with the premise that supporting the whole child means supporting the whole family. To achieve enduring outcomes, nations must focus on the core issues of worker rights and child labour, as well as the rights of women and girls, and climate change. No parent wants to send their child to work instead of schools. Also women and girls face discrimination in nations around the world through laws that restrict their right to own property, to inheritance, to divorce, to child custody, to banking, and to equal access to education.
Excluding the Covid-19 period, poverty rates in Bangladesh have been declining since 2000.
Within that period, poverty rates halved to 24.3 percent whereas extreme poverty rates fell by two-thirds to 12.9 percent. (World Bank Group, 2020) At the same time, according to the World Bank’s findings in the Bangladesh 2012-2013 MICS, the percentage of children 1 to 14 years of age who experienced violent discipline practices that involve parents or caregivers educating and training kids through violent and aggressive means was approximately 82 per cent on a national level and 81 per cent in Dhaka. In the 2019 findings, it was 89 per cent both on the national and city level. Conversely, the number of street children in the region is increasing; according to a recent study evaluating the vulnerability of homeless kids of Bangladesh. And the numbers are expected to rise. This increase seems to coincide with a correlative increase in the rates of violent discipline within Bangladesh as a whole and in the capital. This analysis supports the hypothesis that rates of domestic violence-for example, in the form of violent child discipline have an impact on the number of children migrating to the streets in Bangladesh.
The writer is an academic based in the UK. He can be contacted at [email protected]
