The Way Street Children of Dhaka City Live: A Survey

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Jannatul Mawa Moon, T. N. Sonia Azad

Abstract

Every citizen including children is protected from all sorts of discrimination by the constitution of Bangladesh. Children of today will become the leaders of tomorrow and are in essence, the most valuable human capital of a country. But it is a matter of sorrows that millions of deprived boys and girls have turned to the street as their residence and are referred to as street children. The problem of children's rights has recently received a lot of attention from around the world, with international conventions, summits, and worldwide action for children. Unfortunately, even in today's civilized world, a large number of children still live on the streets around the world. Street children lead really miserable lives with serious physical and psycho-social problems. This paper attempts to find out the way of living of street children in Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh. For this purpose, this study was conducted using survey method in different areas especially Railway stations, Bus stations, Launch terminals, etc. of Dhaka City where the street children usually live. Data was collected from face to face interview of 100 street children (Respondents) aged between 5 to 18 years. This paper reveals the socio-demographic profile of the respondents, parental and family profile of the respondents, economic profile of the respondents, socio-economic and psychological problems of respondents, health issues of the respondents and the reasons of being street children. This paper has also some recommendations on how to decrease the number of street children in Dhaka city and ensure better lives as all citizens are equal before the law and have the right to equal protection, and they must be treated equally under the law.

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