Ram stood in his dirty shorts and looked at the smartly-dressed children who were smiling happily as they were heading for school. He had never been to school. He has picked up some English words but he wished he could go to school. But who was going to enrol him or pay his fees? He was a child of the streets and he had forgotten how he got there. He thought he was 10 years old but he had no documents to prove anything.
Ram was one among millions of children who lived on the streets. These children have no families to care for them or protect them. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old, and their population between different cities are varied. They basically have no contact with other members of the family and live most of the time with other street children in the city streets or are on the move. Why are they on streets? Sometimes the father or mother chooses to abandon the children or the children could have run away from home due to some kind of abuse. They face an unpleasant home environment with parents who are alcoholic or drug addicts, so they leave. They could be facing ill treatment from step parents. Abject poverty could have driven the whole family to move to the streets.
Sometimes the children might run thinking that they can lead a free life but get trapped in a worse situation. Children could have been promised jobs or a glamorous life but find that they are abuse in many ways. Some children are taken away from parents by trusted adults but are exposed to sexual or physical abuse and end up on the streets. Others have been promised a chance to study away from home and end up in abusive plights too. Whatever the reason, the children are thrust into a deplorable position which is unkind and unfair to them. They are young children.
Street children live in broken-down buildings, cardboard boxes and on the street corners. Sometimes a father or mother might appear to claim them but very often, they are abandoned to a hard life on the streets with no adult supervision. The health condition of the street children is generally poor. Many suffer from chronic diseases like typhoid, malaria, leprosy, jaundice and live with liver or kidney disorders. Scabies, gangrene, broken limbs and epilepsy are common. HIV and AIDS cases are now widespread. On an everyday basis, most street children are exposed to dirt, smoke and other environmental hazards. Furthermore, they are constantly exposed to intense sun, rain and the bitter cold.
Most street children find themselves some work, even though they may not be steady and lose jobs regularly. Many work as parking attendants or as rag or rubbish collectors. Some beg from passers-by and make a nuisance of themselves. However, it is pathetic to see a dirty-looking child begging for food or money when he should be playing happily and enjoying his childhood. A study in 1989 shows that 39.3 per cent working children are paid very poorly while 34 per cent complain that they have been forced to overwork. Many children are lured into bonded work or ‘work-camps’ that they are unable to escape from, due to unscrupulous and cruel proprietors or middlemen.
The children are on the streets due to poverty, sickness and exploitation. The tragedy is that the victims are innocent, lonely and frightened young children. A recent study shows that many street children (45.6 per cent) would like to live in a secure place, while 71 per cent are very eager to change their present life. 63 per cent of children have an ambition to do something meaningful in their future. The vast majority of them have a survival instinct and the toughness that helps them survive the day-to-day trials of street life. They, just like Ram face a bleak future ahead.
Answer the questions based on the above passage.
From paragraph 1, why did Ram only think that he was ten years old?
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From paragraph 2,
(a) which phrase tells you that the children sometimes do not stay in one place?
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(b) what drives the whole family to the streets at times?
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(a) From paragraph 3, what can happen to children taken away by trusted adults?
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(b) From paragraph 4, why are there many diseases among the street children?
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From paragraph 5,
(a) what kind of jobs do the street children do?
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(b) what two factors were discovered by the study in 1989?
i. ______________________________________________________________________________________(1 mark)
ii. ______________________________________________________________________________________(1 mark)
In your own opinion, what do you think should be done for the street children? Give a reason to support your answer._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (2 marks)