Street children in dhaka city, capital of bangladesh

Street children in dhaka city, capital of bangladesh 

 

 UNICEF defines street children as, "those who are of the street and on the street." In this study, the term street children refers to those children of 5 to 14 years of age who earn their living on the city streets and stay there for most, or all, of the day. They may or may not have parents or legal guardians. For the purpose of the study, street children were categorized into four groups: children of 5-14 years of age who work on the streets the whole day and a) live on the streets without any family b) live on the streets with their family c) return to another family; and d) return to their own family.

The analysis presented here is based on the unpublished dissertation of the author titled "Street Children of Dhaka City: Origin Migration and Rehabilitation" conducted in 2002. In the study, 300 street children were randomly selected and interviewed from 15 places of Dhaka City for a questionnaire survey. Due to limitations of time, money and manpower the selected sample size was small. As the street children come from a similar socio-economic background the findings of the study, although the sample size is small, should have considerable value.

          Of the 300 street children 84% were boys and 16% were girls. The median age for boys was 12 years and girls was 7 to 8 years. The younger age for girls was largely because of the sexual harassment that the adolescent girls usually face, which force them to work in other sectors. Most of the street children work in the informal sector and their working hours vary widely (Figure 1). An elucidating point worth noting is that most of the children report their working times to be from ’morning till night’ and express the existing strenuous conditions. An important observation from the survey was that 91% of these street children who generally work for the whole day are virtually dependent on their income on a daily basis. Less than a third of the children are able to earn a poor sum of 20-30 taka per day. Almost all of their income is usually spent for food with little or no savings. A significant number of the respondents (65%) contribute towards the income of their family.

          The reason of becoming street children is mainly economic. As Bangladesh is poor country, majority people in Bangladesh lives under poverty line. so many people come to Dhaka city on search of livelihood from the remote corner of country,but they fail to manage any work.As a result the people start to live under open sky.Many of them cannot effort to buy food their family .so the children of those family start working. hardships such as absence of an earning member in the family, death of a parent etc. A majority of the street children (30%) live with their parents in Dhaka City. However, poverty compels them to work long hours on the streets during the day and eventually return to their families at night. 

  

            Street children are generally exposed to dangerous and unhealthy conditions and were reported to suffer from a variety of illnesses. Fever is the most common illness among the street children. The other prevalent illnesses included accident injury, jaundice, chicken pox, allergy, measles, asthma, and diarrhoea. About 99% of the respondents reported that they did fall ill seriously on one or more occasions. Among them three quarters sought health care services and a third did not. They were asked whether a medical professional was contacted for the illness and about half of them reported that they sought services from medical professionals .

the food eaten by the street children are not usually healthy diet. what they eat,are for satisfy their hunger. while eating anything they never think about nutritions. many of them do not know what is nutritions?they eat different types foods does not contain any vitamins, most of the time they contains low quality food materials.so they often fall victim of various diseases .

                              

majority of the street children are derived from the education facilities. though many NGOs are trying to provide them light of knowledge. as they have to work all day long, they fail to attend those programs provided by the NGO.

The role of appropriate education for empowerment of children - especially the disadvantaged groups like the street or working children - has been unequivocally established. Article 17 of the constitution of Bangladesh recognizes the right to education for all - including the disadvantaged children.The national plan of action for children (2005-2010) also clearly emphasises the urgent need for education and empowerment. Along the same vein, the national poverty reduction strategy of the country provides for education as a means of empowerment of disadvantaged groups - including children.Notwithstanding the above official rhetoric, and despite a growing recognition of their vulnerability and disadvantaged status, there have been strikingly limited efforts to improve the condition of street children - especially by providing them with appropriate basic education. It will not be an exaggeration that this section of our society has largely remained outside the main ambit of developmental interventions.Much to the relief of all those who want to see a better future for our street children, there have been a few encouraging, albeit limited, efforts to educate them through open air schools (OAS). These schools are managed and administered by a number of national NGOs, mainly in metropolitan cities.The schools are strategically located, covering the city-entry points and/or working places for street children, such as railway, launch and bus terminals, market places on riverbanks, busy city markets, parks, etc. The street school spots are typically acquired (often free of cost) from the community or public authorities.A typical school functions for two to three hours everyday for up to six days a week. School operating hours are decided so that they do not interfere with the working hours of the children. Prior to commencement of classes, development workers and teachers walk around the neighbouring area to identify newly arrived children and to invite regular children to classes.The learning materials predominantly focus on various life skills related topics. To cite a typical example, the schools run by the NGO Aparajeyo Bangladesh use an open learning package that includes the following topics: Life skills, child rights, child labour, protection from sexual abuse and exploitation (including trafficking), creating dreams, keeping safe on the streets, dealing with the police and HIV/AIDS/STD prevention. The idea is to create an educational foundation amongst the targeted children by blending pedagogical and practical life skills.Based on my recent experience and interactions with a number of such schools (and the key stakeholders including school staff, children, representatives of the surrounding local communities), a number of problems can be identified regarding the contents and conduct of the life skills training and capacity development sessions imparted in the schools:

The mixed age groups of children make it difficult for the educators to respond to age-specific needs, maturity and queries. For very minor children (aged 6 to 10), for example, sessions on fairly technical topics (e.g. sexual abuse, arsenic contamination, legal issues of child trafficking) are not easily comprehensible.The time of the training (2 to 3 hours including the time for rapport building) is considered insufficient by most educators.Some terminologies and technical jargons used in the training sessions are not easily amenable to children's understanding.The schools run on bare minimum logistics and facilities and lack any protection from weather fluctuations in the rainy and winter seasons.As the children hail from varied geographical locations and cultures, some staff noted that diversity and variations in language (including accents and dialects) sometimes make uniform conduct of training sessions difficult.Some training materials are not in adequate supply. Use of audio-visual materials is strikingly limited.in the OAS, ensuring and maintaining regular presence of the children, who often tend to be highly mobile and restless, is a huge challenge.Although most educators have basic training (to a varying degree), advanced training on teaching techniques and tools is clearly inadequate.It may be relevant at this point to think about and furnish some clues on improving the effectiveness of the OAS campaign. Some such ideas include the following:The training topics, session time, and contents need to be reviewed and analysed by appropriately qualified experts and practitioners in order to make them more consistent, comprehensible and adaptive to the specific age and intellectual development of the targeted children and the local context.To ensure 'age-content compatibility', some educators and trainers opined that the children may be divided into two groups - up to 11 years of age, and 12 years and above.
The logistical requirements of the OAS should be reviewed.

A need assessment for all teachers and trainers should be carried out, and further training such as advanced training on teaching techniques (preferably tailor-made to the street children) and training of trainers may be considered.The contents and mode of delivery of various training and capacity development initiatives should more clearly focus on (and lean towards) a rights-based approach as distinct from mere philanthropic orientations.As far as possible, the training contents and literature should use visual and pictorial materials as well as physical demonstrations, where applicable. Other experimental models of training and learning may provide valuable lessons in this regard.Along the same vein, the training methodologies used in these schools need to be reviewed by appropriately qualified experts. Emphasis may be given to use of learning by doing, mock sessions, and various illustrative tools.The concerned staff should have systematic and regular consultations with the targeted children and community people before designing and/or implementing any training scheme, especially about its contents, time and location.Female children should be given preference, or at least equal opportunity, in availing various skills development training.

The salience and topicality of education as a means of broad-based empowerment are now unequivocally established, both amongst the academics and the development practitioners. This observation is especially relevant for the street children as one of the most disadvantaged and marginal sections of the society. The OAS campaign, despite all the limitations, does offer some rays of hope. This interesting initiative deserves immediate attention from our policy planners, academics, and development practitioners.