Human Trafficking in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]
Street Children in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]
 

Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children

In the first ten years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2009

Union of Myanmar (Burma) Burma, a resource-rich country, suffers from pervasive government controls, inefficient economic policies, and rural poverty. Despite Burma's increasing oil and gas revenue, socio-economic conditions have deteriorated because of the regime's mismanagement of the economy. The September 2007 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, including thousands of monks, strained the economy as the tourism industry, which directly employs about 500,000 people, suffered dramatic declines in foreign visitor levels. [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Burma. Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

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Children’s Day Nothing to Celebrate in Burma

This article has been archived by World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here]

Poverty, the economic crisis and instability in Burma drives more and more children in search of jobs. Some work from 5 a.m. until late at night in tea shops, bars and factories, often earning just 7,000 kyat ($ US5.72) per month. A resident in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy recently that the amount of street children in the former capital is now increasing. “Many children aged between 4 and 13 are begging on the streets. Some young children are carrying babies and begging. Some street children look for plastic in the rubbish bins and dumps and some go fishing every day for their daily survival,” she said. According to reports, sometimes street children who can’t produce ID are recruited into the Burmese army.

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UNICEF - The Big Picture

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

CHILDREN – Children under the age of 18 constituted approximately 40 percent of the population. Children were at high risk as destitute parents took them out of school to beg or to work in factories and teashops. Some were placed in orphanages. With few or no skills, increasing numbers of children worked in the informal economy or in the street, where they were exposed to drugs, petty crime, risk of arrest, sexual abuse and exploitation, and HIV/AIDS.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 1997

[10] The Committee, while recognizing the efforts undertaken by the State party in the collection of data, is concerned that the system of data collection does not adequately disaggregate information so as to reflect the situation of all children, particularly those belonging to the most disadvantaged groups, including children belonging to minority groups, children living in remote areas, disabled children, children living and/or working in the street, children placed in institutions, including institutions of a penal nature, ill-treated and abused children or children from economically disadvantaged groups. Such disaggregated data would contribute to the design of policies and programs for the effective and full implementation of the provisions of the Convention

Children’s Day Nothing to Celebrate in Burma

This article has been archived by World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here]

Poverty, the economic crisis and instability in Burma drives more and more children in search of jobs. Some work from 5 a.m. until late at night in tea shops, bars and factories, often earning just 7,000 kyat ($ US5.72) per month. A resident in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy recently that the amount of street children in the former capital is now increasing. “Many children aged between 4 and 13 are begging on the streets. Some young children are carrying babies and begging. Some street children look for plastic in the rubbish bins and dumps and some go fishing every day for their daily survival,” she said. According to reports, sometimes street children who can’t produce ID are recruited into the Burmese army.

Economic Crisis Fueling Child Labor, Trafficking

The economic crisis and instability in Burma is driving waves of Burmese children into hard labor, begging and the sex trade, claims exiled Burmese rights groups.

Meanwhile, the results of child trafficking has had a huge impact on the education of many Burmese migrant children, forcing the children into hard labor in factories, sweat shops and even into the sex trade, according to Burmese migrant education groups. Many victims under the age of 18 have become street beggars and sex workers instead of studying at school, said Paw Ray, the chairperson of the BMWEC, which operates nearly 50 schools for children of Burmese migrant workers in Mae Sot.

Myanmar rebel group denies child soldier claims

In a statement released Friday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that both the military government and rebel groups continued to violate children's rights by recruiting underage soldiers. Citing a recent UN report, he said that the government was picking up street children or those without national identity cards and offering them the choice of arrest or joining the army.

Myanmar's military government officially denies using child soldiers and has passed a law to outlaw the practice. But human rights groups say child soldiers in Myanmar remain alarmingly common, with boys as young as 12 recruited to fight the ethnic rebel armies in the country's border regions. - htsc

Information about Street Children - Myanmar {DOC]

www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Myanmar%20Child.doc

75% initial enrolment in primary school of which 25% drop out in 1st and 2nd year. Less than 50% of those remaining will complete primary school and fewer still will graduate to secondary school. Definitions and statistics: World Vision Myanmar has worked with almost 2,000 children over the past five years in two drop-in centers. The government established ten training schools for boys and girls around the country. Many of these children could be classified as street children.

Children Find Refuge From Harsh Life On The Streets

www.wvi.org/wvi/archives/asia/myanmar.htm

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

Their deaths left eight children in an extremely precarious situation. With no income and no social welfare system to fall back on, the children had to fend for themselves. As their situation worsened, both boys abandoned school. They could no longer pay the school fees, or cover the cost of school uniforms, books and lunches. Their other siblings also needed them to earn money.
San Aung says he would have liked to be a doctor They live on the streets of Yangon, trying to scrape together a living by working, stealing, or scavenging among the leftovers at one of the city’s main markets.

Child Soldiers In Myanmar's Front Line

HUMAN SHIELDS - While some children are recruited voluntarily for Myanmar's armed forces, others, especially orphans and street children are vulnerable to what is called "forced recruitment. Under this scheme, local authorities in Myanmar are required to provide the government with a certain quota of recruits, the report says, and are fined if they fail. A lot of these children are street children.

Chapter 3 - Nature and Extent of the Problem

3.1 CHILD LABOR EXPLOITATION IN MEKONG SUBREGION - In Myanmar, there are visibly street children in Yangoon. Approximately more than 100 children, many of whom were apparently under 10 years of age, were present around the central market areas at communities the Thai research team made visits to.

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Human Trafficking in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]
Street Children in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]