EXPLOITATION OF THE ONES WHO HAVE NO ONE

There is no way to thoroughly enumerate the various ways in which children around the world are economically exploited and physically mistreated. But the numbers are great and the suffering widespread. Behind the hideous imagery of children beaten or sexually abused by parents; ravaged beyond their years by hard living and drug abuse on the streets; maimed by landmines or turned into killers by war; stricken with AIDS are the all-too-common struggles against disease, hardship, and family or social traditions that compromise children’s humanity or subject them to physical and emotional suffering. While 18 million children work on the streets of India, it is estimated that only 5-20 percent of them are truly homeless and disconnected from their families. Because the street children in India have unique vulnerabilities - the amount of time they spend on the street, their livelihood depending on the street, and their lack of protection and care from adults - they are a subgroup of the Indian population that deserve specific attention in order to ensure that their needs are known. As the most vulnerable group of children in India according to UNICEF, they need to be understood as much as possible. This study illustrates the trend found by most researchers: most children leave their families to live on the street because of family problems. Family problems include such things as death of a parent, alcoholism of father, strained relationships with stepparents, parent separation, abuse, and family violenc