Street children and their concerns: a sociological study of srinagar district of jammu and kashmir

A street child is any girl or boy for whom the street has become his or her habitual abode or a source of livelihood, and who worked on the street and went home to their families at night. The scenario of street children is considered to be the most important problem facing both developed and developing societies. Street children constitute a snubbed group as they are the product of economic growth, war, poverty, loss of traditional values, domestic violence, physical and mental abuse. Every street child has a reason for being on the streets, and the present study was an endeavor to analyze the reasons or causes of a child on the streets. The research work was an exertion to highlight the socio-economic problems faced by the street children in Jammu and Kashmir with special reference to Srinagar district. Street children are the most perceptible fragment of our society, deprived with vital services like education and health care, and the most difficult to protect. They become the victim of all forms of exploitation and abuse, and their daily lives are likely to be very different from the idyllic childhood. The findings of the study divulge that there are many reasons for children to decide to leave their homes: poverty, disagreement at home, disintegration in family, unable to pay school fee and to find jobs.