Street children of India: a situational analysis
- Allahabad Chugh Pub. 1991
- 345p.
Urbanization-transformation of human society from a primarily rural to a primarily urban-is a central fact of modern human existence and a striking feature of the future situation of the world population. Whatever be the positive gains of city and its civilization, it has created immense social problems ramifications of which have affected the quality of life of much of the humankind. It has given rise to new human habitat-slums and shanty towns-where an average of 50 percent of the urban population lives in conditions of extreme deprivation and battle continuously simply to survive. The crisis urbanization has wrought has undoubtedly affected al sections of the urban population; urban nevertheless, the Fourth World People of Third World poor-the countries-have been hit hardest. However, risks of urbanization vary by the age and sex. Trapped in pov erty, age-wise, children, youth and elderly people and sex-wise, girls and Women are the most vulnerable groups. Children, particularly from the poverty-stricken families, have fallen prey to the problems that are at once too complex: they are used, abandoned, neglected and expioted in sundry ways. The poorest et the poor-the children-have been Cast nto the streets of the cities to dtor themselves. The present study focuses on street children-a symptom of a deep and disturbing trend in society end a growing urban tragedy