Street children

One of the most vulnerable and neglected sects of our society is that populated by street children. The term street children as articulated by Amnesty International, refers to those either on or of the street. Some are engaged in nominal economic activity ranging from begging to vending, while others have no association with any economic activity whatsoever. Few have family ties, and those that do are weak and maintained only casually. Poverty, the death of parents, or the necessity of supporting their families has driven these otherwise bright and lively children to the streets.

There are thousands of street children in the Western Province of Sri Lanka alone. Of these children few have proper housing and even fewer attend school. They roam the streets and migrate mostly toward larger cities such as Colombo, Kandy, and Kurunegala in search of work. The majority turn to begging, rummaging through rubbish bins while others turn to drugs and crime or are caught in the webs of child slavery, trafficking, or prostitution. A British Charity, Christian Aid, estimates that over 10,000 children aged 6-14 are enslaved in brothels, and 10,000 to 12,000 children are trafficked and prostituted by organized crime groups.