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Description

Unseen in the Shadows

Across the world there are millions of children who face the reality of spending their everyday life living or working on the streets. The quality of life of these children is poor, as they are exposed violence, deprived living conditions and a lack of access to basic necessities, healthcare and education. The numbers of street children around the world are rising, especially in developing countries where rapid urbanization has led to the creation of urban slums in which children often experience extreme poverty.

A global crisis is rapidly unfolding and yet the international community continues to largely ignore children connected to the street. As a result, the need to alleviate the problems causing children to become involved with the street as well as support and protect those already living in these conditions is ever more vital.

How many street children are there and where do they live?

Latest figures (which haven't been updated) on the number of street children living globally emerged more than a decade ago, published by the international children’s charity, Unicef. In 2005, the organization predicted that there are more than 100 million street children around the world. This is just an estimate, however, and may be under-counted since the process of counting is extremely difficult.

Street children have diverse characteristics and experiences

As mentioned above, street children are not a clearly defined, consistent group. Their characteristics are diverse, coming from a range of different backgrounds, ethnicity and ages.

Stereotypically street children are often thought of as boys and it is true that studies in many locations have counted more boys on the street than girls. This is likely due to the more traditional gender roles at play in many cultures, which encourage boys to be independent, work and socialize outside of the home, while girls stay indoors. Girls are also often less visible on the street, keeping out of sight to protect themselves from the dangers of street living or being more likely to work as domestic servants or involved in the global commercial sex trade.

What causes children to live or work on the street?

Poverty and income disparities.

Inadequate social protection for vulnerable children.

Wars, conflicts, epidemics and disasters.

Patterns of urbanization.

Discrimination against certain groups.

Violence becomes a part of everyday life

Another major difficulty of life on the street is the constant threat of violence. While the street can be a place for friendships, violence between street children is also common. A lot of this behavior was directed at younger children, who not only experienced physical abuse, but also sexual abuse at the hands of older street youths. Many of these older children had been raped themselves when they were younger and used sexual abuse as a means of expressing power and anger over their younger peers.

In addition to violence from other street inhabitants, street children are vulnerable to experiencing abuse from the police, local business owners and other members of the public.

Forced sex-selling and begging is also common on the streets, leaving children at risk of abuse and exploitation from the adult organizers of this work. Sex work is particularly prevalent among girls: a study found that 79 percent of girls counted on the street at night were involved in commercial sex work, rising to 86 percent of the 15- to 18-year-old girls counted.

Created in Daz Studio, Affinity Photo.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Property Of HENRY1850. Copying or using in AI Scripting STRICTLY Forbidden!

None of my artworks are permitted to be used as NFT's. All rights reserved. This work may NOT BE reproduced, copied, edited, published,

transmitted or uploaded in any way without written permission from HENRY1850.

This work does not belong to the public domain. If you have doubts about this matter, please feel free to direct message HENRY1850

Description

Unseen in the Shadows

Across the world there are millions of children who face the reality of spending their everyday life living or working on the streets. The quality of life of these children is poor, as they are exposed violence, deprived living conditions and a lack of access to basic necessities, healthcare and education. The numbers of street children around the world are rising, especially in developing countries where rapid urbanization has led to the creation of urban slums in which children often experience extreme poverty.

A global crisis is rapidly unfolding and yet the international community continues to largely ignore children connected to the street. As a result, the need to alleviate the problems causing children to become involved with the street as well as support and protect those already living in these conditions is ever more vital.

How many street children are there and where do they live?

Latest figures (which haven't been updated) on the number of street children living globally emerged more than a decade ago, published by the international children’s charity, Unicef. In 2005, the organization predicted that there are more than 100 million street children around the world. This is just an estimate, however, and may be under-counted since the process of counting is extremely difficult.

Street children have diverse characteristics and experiences

As mentioned above, street children are not a clearly defined, consistent group. Their characteristics are diverse, coming from a range of different backgrounds, ethnicity and ages.

Stereotypically street children are often thought of as boys and it is true that studies in many locations have counted more boys on the street than girls. This is likely due to the more traditional gender roles at play in many cultures, which encourage boys to be independent, work and socialize outside of the home, while girls stay indoors. Girls are also often less visible on the street, keeping out of sight to protect themselves from the dangers of street living or being more likely to work as domestic servants or involved in the global commercial sex trade.

What causes children to live or work on the street?

Poverty and income disparities.

Inadequate social protection for vulnerable children.

Wars, conflicts, epidemics and disasters.

Patterns of urbanization.

Discrimination against certain groups.

Violence becomes a part of everyday life

Another major difficulty of life on the street is the constant threat of violence. While the street can be a place for friendships, violence between street children is also common. A lot of this behavior was directed at younger children, who not only experienced physical abuse, but also sexual abuse at the hands of older street youths. Many of these older children had been raped themselves when they were younger and used sexual abuse as a means of expressing power and anger over their younger peers.

In addition to violence from other street inhabitants, street children are vulnerable to experiencing abuse from the police, local business owners and other members of the public.

Forced sex-selling and begging is also common on the streets, leaving children at risk of abuse and exploitation from the adult organizers of this work. Sex work is particularly prevalent among girls: a study found that 79 percent of girls counted on the street at night were involved in commercial sex work, rising to 86 percent of the 15- to 18-year-old girls counted.

Created in Daz Studio, Affinity Photo.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Property Of HENRY1850. Copying or using in AI Scripting STRICTLY Forbidden!

None of my artworks are permitted to be used as NFT's. All rights reserved. This work may NOT BE reproduced, copied, edited, published,

transmitted or uploaded in any way without written permission from HENRY1850.

This work does not belong to the public domain. If you have doubts about this matter, please feel free to direct message HENRY1850