Life on the Street


Ex-ragpicker Anbu, now at Agape Children's Centre
Though the majority of the street children manage to earn their daily bread, in many cases, the street children are:

• Abused and exploited
• Deprived: lacking job, money, food and shelter, they are forced into begging, thieving, drug peddling, pimping, and prostitution
• Regarded as juvenile delinquents and antisocial elements, they are often falsely accused of crimes and sent to secure homes of correction, or worse, put into adult prisons
• Engaged in gambling, a popular pastime on the street
  
• Denied education
  
• Cut off from parental influence and guidance.
  
  

Most importantly, the children on the streets remain deprived of their basic needs of food, shelter, clothing and the security of family love and a home. With no adult to care for them, these children have to fend for themselves and cope with the problems of the world, before they have developed the emotional maturity that this demands.

Street children and ragpickers suffer from diseases like scabies; lice; chronic dysentery; lung, ear, nose and throat infections; cuts; and abrasions. These are caused by poverty, malnutrition and the unhygienic surroundings in which the children are forced live.