The sexual lives of street children in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

There is very little information available about the specific nature of street children’s sexualities and the related health implications. This paper provides an insight into the sexual experiences, practices and attitudes of street boys and girls who live and work on the streets of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and the performance of their sexual identities in clifferent spaces.! Sexual activity, even for young children, is an intrinsic part of street life, and street children have shifting sexual identities which are related to time-space processes, as well as the situated cliscourses of work, leisure and friendship. In this paper I will first address the lives of homeless street children in Yogyakarta, explaining who they are, and how they survive in a society which is hostile to their very existence. I then reflect on the sexual world of streer children, and provide an idea of how they conceptualise their Own sexuality, and how sex fulfils their multiple needs. The paper also considers how the children’s sexual behaviour puts them at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted cliseases, including HIVI AIDS, and what the children’s attitudes are to these risks