Nearly 40 - 50% children among working-children are street children. These children survive by begging, stealing, shoe polish, street performance, collecting scraps, street selling and other. Some, particularly girls, get involved into the flesh trade. The majority of children on the streets in developing countries are rural migrants. Children migrate with their parents and as a result of worst economical condition of parents, get involved into odd jobs. Some percentage comes alone to urban cities due to bad environment in their own home such percentage is less. Major percentages of such children get addicted to use of drugs and their main work is scrap collection or stealing. With girls it is serious issue as rural poor illiterate parents abandon girl child to end up life in brothel or street prostitution and of them some escape to streets begging, scrap collection and finally end up as prostitutes. In developing countries; girl child is considered as disgrace in poor illiterate orthodox uncivilized families. Nearly half of street beggars and garbage collectors are girl children. Most such girls are neglected by parents as are considered burden on them.

Urban children who turn as street children are 10% to 20% of working children. Family economical condition or unpleasant abusive environment or abandoned by parents or mental disorder are the major reason for them to leave home. Number of street Children on account of unpleasant abusive parents in Brazil, U.K, U.S.A, and Mexico are extremely high.

Aggressive Movies and TV channel environment too has contributed spoiling children to source money through ugly street jobs for drug addiction; become street children. Also friend circle or family alcoholic habit stimulates children to taste such life.
(All above information is only my views observing and contacting urban and rural street children, may not be accurate).


Click below link for detailed facts and figures from various websites and sources for child prostitution - trafficking, and street children; clearly indicate that number of child prostitution and street children are increasing each day, each month and each year. Arresting child labor in factories in several countries have opened numerous fields for young children to opt alternate ways of sourcing money. New fields like pornography, sex tourism, plastic items, plastic bags and garbage collection, begging in streets, pick pocketing. Involvement of young children in these areas is much-much more than what figures show. Collection of facts and figures is tough job and may not achieve accuracy as such activities are hidden and illegal and fear of getting caught by authorities does not help revealing correct numbers. They can be seen in railway stations, national bus stops, retail markets, main road sides, city garbage dumping places, over and under bridges, unauthorized settlement areas, and in brothel areas. U.S. Congress Cites Growing World Problem of "Street Children":- More than 100 million children worldwide are living hand-to-mouth, bereft of family and homes, and are "particularly vulnerable to abuse" in countries as wide-ranging as Uganda, Zimbabwe, Brazil and the Philippines, Representative Christopher Smith, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Africa Subcommittee said September 13. between 32,000 and 52,000 children known as "night commuters" travel from war-torn areas of Uganda "each night to urban centers to avoid abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army," a rebel movement that has battled the central government for more than 10 years. Democratic Republic of Congo, Denehy said, "between 25,000 and 50,000 child refugees, war orphans and other children, widely perceived to be street thugs, are accused of witchcraft or sorcery. They live on the streets throughout the country, and engage in petty crime, begging and/or prostitution." For Africa, Alton gave the following figures for street children: Kenya, 250,000; Ethiopia, 150,000; Zimbabwe, 12,000. And he said that many street children have been forced to serve as child soldiers, suffering death or terrible wounds. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), he said, the United Nations estimates that 30,000 children under the age of 12 are under arms, making up 10 percent of the armed groups in the region. At the same time, Alton said, "20,000 children are believed to live on the streets in the DRC capital, Kinshasa.". Clink link:- http://www.sadashivan.com/factsandfigures/