Homeless children in latin america and north america

Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) asserts that “States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.” Homelessness denies each one of those rights. According to an Inter-NGO Program on street children and youth, a street child is “any girl or boy who has not reached adulthood, for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood, and who is inadequately protected, directed, and supervised by responsible adults.”

Definition of street children adapted from Unicef 1986
Children on the street: “Home based” children who spend much of the day on the street but have some family support and usually return home at night
Children of the street: “Street based” children who spend most days and nights on the street and are functionally without family support

The hidden and isolated nature of street children makes accurate statistics difficult to gather; however, UNICEF estimates there are approximately 100 million street children worldwide with that number constantly growing. There are up to 40 million street children in Latin America , and at least 18 million in India.

The street children has vulnerable to the society because most of the time are abused and they don’t have food to eat and for that they usually are victim of violence more vulnerable is the girls because they don’t have family to protect them.

Street children in Latin America suggest that their ages range from 8 to 17 years, with the average age on entering the street being 9 years. Girls form just 10-15% of street children

Source:
Amod K. Kanth, Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre Society Bruce Harris, Casa Alianza. (2004). Street children and homelessness. Recovered June 2, 2015. http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0904-Homelessness.html

Thomas J Scanlon, Andrew Tomkins, Margaret A Lynch, Francesca Scanlon. (1998). Street children in Latin America. Recovered June 2, 2015. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1113205/

Dal Mondo. (2014). Recovered June 2, 2015. http://piattaformainfanzia.org/rassegna/usa-1-bambino-su-30-e-stato-un-homeless-nel-2013/


Written by:
Tivanna Ronquillo.