Street child
A street child or street kid is a child who lives on the street – in particular, one that is not taken care of by parents or other adults – and who sleeps on the street because he or she does not have a home.
Street children exist in many major cities, especially in the Third World, and may be the subject of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or even in extreme cases murder by "clean up squads" hired by local businesses (e.g see Colombian Street children).
In the United States, as many as one in seven young people run away or are thrown out of their homes before the age of 18. Many of these children have been driven out of their homes by extreme poverty, severe family conflict, abuse and neglect, or parental abuse of alcohol and drugs.
In South America, a common cause is abandonment by poor families unable to feed all their children. In Africa, an increasingly common cause is AIDS.
In Russia, street children usually find a home in abandoned sewage systems during the harsh winter. These underground homes offer space, shelter and most importantly of all, heat.
The Council of Europe estimates that there are approximately 1000 street children in Bucharest, Romania, though estimates range from several hundred to 10,000. These children are victims of the policies of former Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who forbade contraception in the hopes of ruling a populous nation, or of his successors, who consider the economy of greater importance than social welfare. Many of these children are abandoned or run away from home because their parents are too poor to feed them. Romania has the highest incidence of child HIV/AIDS cases in Europe, as a result of needless transfusions of contaminated blood in the 1986-1991 period, but HIV-positive street children do not have access to anti-retroviral therapy.
Countries such as India, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Thailand, and most recently Russia, Mexico and countries in Eastern Europe have large numbers of street children.
Estimates vary but it is generally agreed that the number of children living independently in the streets totals between 100 and 150 million worldwide.