Street Children in Kathmandu

Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1Background There are estimated to be around 120 million children living on the streets in the world (30 million in Africa, 30 million in Asia, and 60 million in South America). Often victims of all kinds of abuse, these children still have rights. Street children are minors who live and survive on the streets .The phenomenon of street children is multifaceted. It is therefore very difficult to single out one or more causes. Street children are the reality world-wide and in Kathmandu valley alone, the numbers of street children are estimated roughly 1200 .The vast majority of these children are illiterate boys aged between 10 and 18. They live; sleep and work under the open sky and survive without family support. They are living with friends and peers, working as beggars and rag pickers. The reason for why children end up homeless in street is Socio-economic conditions in villages, family violence, peer influence, attraction towards the city, and political instability etc. When the children pass through with stepmothers, family conflicts, poverty, lack of awareness and orphanages some children left home in search of better opportunities in the big cities and end up in street when they find same peer group who gave up their dreams and started living on street. For survival they beg at first and when it is insufficient then they turn into criminal and began to steal. They pull themselves to Glue sniffing to cut out hunger which is cheaper than other drugs and food. In this way they started it to play as a toy which made them criminals, thieves, divided into group, made a hierarchy between them which leads gang fight and leadership. For earning some sell labor and victim to all types of exploitation and abuse including sex. At this time some suffer from diseases or illness by their drug abuse and hunger.