Street children are often called ‘hidden children’. Being hidden, they are at higher risk of being abused, exploited and neglected. Homelessness and street life have extremely detrimental effects on children. Their unstable lifestyles, lack of medical care, and inadequate living conditions increase young people’s susceptibility to chronic illnesses such as respiratory or ear infections and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Drug use by children on the streets is common as they look for means to numb the pain and deal with the hardships associated with street life.
In 2007, an MWCD report on child abuse found that 65.9% of the street children lived with their families. Out of these children, 51.84% slept on the sidewalks, 17.48% slept in shelters and 30.67% slept in other locations such as under flyovers, bridges, railway platforms, bus stops, parks, marketplaces, etc. 66.8% of children reported being physically abused by family members and others.
A study conducted by Save the Children in 2013-14 on street children in four cities: Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur (with a sample size of 4,224 children) found that 90.6% of the children surveyed reported that they faced risks on the street in the form of threat to limb/life, police harassment, parental abuse and sexual abuse. Overall, 9.3 % of the children did not respond when asked about the risks faced by them on the street.
