Children of the street: Why are they in the street? How do they live?

Abstract

Children form one of the main populations to be victims of poverty worldwide. Children of the street are now regarded as a particularly vulnerable population. This article tackles two questions: firstly, the question of which factors can be decisive in the phenomenon of children of the street. It opens a debate on the respective roles of poverty and of other factors, such as domestic violence and parental neglect. Secondly, it considers the question of how they live in the street. Children develop survival strategies that are obviously based on their activities, but also involve an organization that calls for analysis in terms of strategic positioning on the territory they occupy.