Surviving in the Streets: Challenges and Solutions for Bangladeshi Street Children

An estimated 100 million of the world’s street children experience poverty, violence, abuse, exploitation, and harassment. It is difficult to calculate an accurate number, due to the street children’s unpredictable movement. It is reported as a social, health, and human rights issue in low- and middle-income countries. It is a major social challenge in the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka, due to poverty, population growth, and urban migration. These children are vulnerable, voiceless, marginalised, and stigmatised, often treated as criminals in Bangladesh. This chapter looks at the difficulties that Dhaka’s street children face, and the professional interventions to promote their well-being. This chapter reviews currently available evidence and knowledge regarding the children migrated on the streets and the services they sought in Bangladesh. This review found that children end up in the streets of Bangladesh because of limited access to income, food, clothing, and other essentials. Others, from non-poor households, become street dwellers because they experience excessive control and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in their household which influenced them to move to the street. Majority of children experienced violence in their households during the year before they started to live on the street. This review also found, living, working, playing, and sleeping rough in the street put them at risk of serious psychical injury, disability, and in some cases death, while they often experience emotional and psychological harm. Several recommendations for practice are provided at the end of this chapter.