Suffer, Little Children?

With a population of around 166million, it is estimated that Brazil has anywhere between 200,000 to 8 million “street children”. This is both cause and consequence of the terrible poverty suffered by the poorest of Brazilians’ whom, despite making up around 50% of the population are living on 10% of the country’s overall wealth according to UN figures.

A key reason for this poverty is the push for industrialisation which has lead to the break up of much of their traditional way of life, causing family break ups and violence to name a few of the issues facing families there.

As a consequence, many children are forced onto the streets due to being orphaned of their parents being too impoverished to care for them and as a result of this they are forced, at best to become shoe shiners or similar, however for the majority they become involved in prostitution and organised crime as they have no alternative means by which to support themselves.

Research carried out by Amnesty International shows that drug abuse is common amongst the street children, and the spread of HIV is also is on the increase due to increased sexual activity amongst the youths, partially as a result of prostitution. This results in a culture of fear surrounding the street children, who are viewed as a problem to society. As a result it is thought that at least two children per day are murdered either by government “death squads” or vigilante groups.

The situation here is repeated in parts of India where the increased demand for child labour as a result of the economic boom has worsened the day to day lives of many of India’s poorest families. Furthermore this would appear to be a vicious circle as the children are forced to work as a result of poverty, and therefore do not have access to education, which in turn limits their career prospects as an adult thus the cycle of poverty continues.

Examples of this type of child abuse can be found right the way across Africa, India, Asia and even in parts of Europe. Moscow for example, has a real problem with street children yet in spite of the increased awareness of the issue and subsequently the rise of groups such as Amnesty International’s Children’s Human Rights network this desperate situation continues and as demand for mass produced goods continues to feed the demand for child labour one can only hope that the increased awareness will help to combat the plight of those who fall victim to this terrible situation.

It is important, however that we recognise that this is not a problem which only affects “other” countries, indeed within the UK as well as the issue of native street children, there are also those who have been brought from developing countries, lured by the promise of a better life, only to be forced into a life of crime or prostitution once they arrive here.