Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the
first decade of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/China.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how some
manage to leave the street. Perhaps
your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the public and how
they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each other. Would you like to write about market
children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Gene ID cards
issued to help Xinhua News Agency, news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/03/content_7360752.htm [accessed 28 April
2011] With specially-made
ID cards containing their genetic information, 14 street children in
northwest The card, with 15
gene loci (gene locations), can represent the full biological characteristics
of a person, and has no chance to be identical with another one among the 6
billion population in the world, Wu said. ***
ARCHIVES *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61605.htm [accessed 7 February
2020] CHILDREN
-
Juvenile crime increased sharply, prompting calls to establish an
independent, nationwide juvenile justice system. During the first seven
months of the year, 23 percent more juveniles were convicted of crimes than
during the same period in 2004. From 2000 to 2004, the annual increase in
juvenile crime was 14 percent. Authorities arrested 69,780 juveniles in 2003,
and approximately 19 thousand juveniles were incarcerated in formal prisons.
Abolition of the system of custody and repatriation in 2003 reduced the
number of children detained administratively. Nonetheless, more than 150
thousand homeless "street
children" lived in cities, according to state-run media. Many did not
live with their parents and survived by begging. New life for
hapless kids Wang www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-10/16/content_7111771.htm [accessed 28 April
2011] When Zeng was 5,
her father abandoned her after her stepmother had a baby. She was given to a
couple and brought to Jiangxi. This
couple only adopted her to exploit her as a bread winner. They trained Zeng
to do acrobatics and treated her like a circus animal. For two months after she escaped this hell,
Zeng performed on the streets to beg and slept at bus stations. Number of homeless
centers to double in China Guan www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-09/13/content_7024750.htm [accessed 6 January
2015] Gao said a national
relief system aimed at helping vagrants, both adults and children, was set up
in August 2003, following a scandal in which Sun Zhigang,
a native of Hubei province and a worker at a garment company in Guangdong
province, was beaten to death by eight patients at a penitentiary hospital
just hours after being arrested as a vagrant for not carrying his ID. Under the system,
adult vagrants can apply for free board and lodging for up to 10 days at
relief stations, she said. In that
time, local civil affairs bureaus, which oversee the stations, will help
people to make contact with their families and will also pay for their bus or
train ticket home. Before the system was
set up, homeless people were subject to the old system of "compulsory
custody and repatriation", under which police had to jail vagrants and
beggars, and send them back to their hometowns, Gao said. "The establishment of the new relief
system is a major step forward for human rights protection in China." As of March of this
year, the system had helped 588,500 street children nationwide, she
said. "Most of them left home
because of poverty, improper parenting, or because they were
trafficked," she said Behind the scenes
in Beijing Catherine Sampson,
Guardian, 3 August 2008 www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/03/china.olympicgames2008 [accessed 29 January
2011] At the bottom of
the heap are the street children. At a residential school, I met some of the
children plucked from the streets. An 11-year-old boy who preferred that I
call him by his English name, Nicholas, told me that he had lived with his
younger brother and older sister in Henan. His father was frequently in
trouble and a mother was both pitifully poor and unable to cope with her
uncontrollable children. One day the boss of a beggar gang arrived scouting
for children. He offered the mother 3 yuan (20p) per day per child if she
would allow him to take them away to beg, which she did. He said he would
hand over this money in a lump sum once a year at Chinese New Year. During the months
that followed, Nicholas said, he earned between 100 and 600 yuan per day
(between £7 and £40) for his boss. Nicholas kept trying to run away. When the
boss beat his younger brother for not earning enough, Nicholas swore at his
boss. Because of this, when the boss took the children home at spring
festival, he gave Nicholas' mother only 30 yuan (£2) for her son's labour. – htsc Kelly Road grad
doing research in China Bernice Trick,
Prince George Citizen, 10 May 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/kelly-road-grad-doing-research-in-china/ [accessed 16 January
2017] She said the
majority of street children are males. Many are children of migrant workers
who've become lost in job shuffles, some have run away or been pushed out of
their homes, others have been sold or stolen, and many are orphaned due to
parent deaths form disasters like floods and drought. Man joins beggars
to learn cruel story about street kids Zhang Liuhao, 2006-12-21 [accessed 16 January
2017] Motivated by the
plight of injured street children, a man became a beggar for two months in
Shenzhen to learn about their circumstances. He visited a man,
who was considered the richest beggar in Shenzhen. The man always controlled
three to four sick or handicapped children, intimidating them into begging. Cao said the man
broke arms or legs of the children he had abducted to make them look
miserable. The more miserable it looked, the more people would give to these
children, the man believed. When the
children turned seriously ill, they often disappeared mysteriously and some
new cruelly injured children would appear, Cao said. Not scorned, street
kids get new life in imitation family 2006-06-02 [accessed 16 January
2017] Home meant anything
but warmth to Wang Qi when he, then 12 years old, was rejected by his
divorced parents four years ago. But
an imitation family program is reshaping the boy’s idea, if more, perhaps,
his life. Xinhua News Agency, news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/17/content_4563471.htm [accessed 28 April
2011] Currently street
children have access to food and accommodationat
relief stations, which also provide help for adult vagrants. The street children's centers to be
established across China will offer not only room and board but also basic
education. Civil affairs authorities
help as many as 150,000 street kids every year. Experts estimate that there
are a total of 1 million street children in China. At the Margins:
Street Children in Asia and the Pacific Andrew West, 2003 --
Asian Development Bank ADB, Poverty and Social Development Papers resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/content/library/documents/margins-street-children-asia-and-pacific [accessed 28 April
2011] The Asia-Pacific
Region is home to nearly half the world's children, including large numbers
of street children. This paper provides an introductory snapshot of
issues concerning "street children" in this vast and culturally
diverse region. Major characteristics
of street children include homelessness, separation from family, poverty, and
being out of school with a need to work, which are further linked to
vulnerability, to exploitation and risk. This is a thorough review of the
situation of street children in the region, which explores meanings and
definitions, the causes and reasons for moving to the street, daily life
issues and risks and perceived benefits of street life. It also presents
examples from across the region, frameworks and methods for intervention
before concluding by reviewing the roles of governments and NGOs. Information About
Street Children - This report is taken
from “A Civil Society Forum for East and South East Asia on Promoting and
Protecting the Rights of Street Children”, 12-14 March 2003, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 22
September 2011] There are an
estimated 150,000 street children in The Migrant's
Story: Contours Of Human Rights Abuse Human Rights Watch
Report, "The Invisible Exodus: North Koreans In The People's Republic Of
www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/northkorea/norkor1102-01.htm [accessed 28 April
2011] CHILDREN WITHOUT A
FUTURE
- Humanitarian workers also reported to Human Rights Watch a significant and
growing problem of Getting children
off the street in Baoji Médecins Sans Frontières MSF, May 2005 At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 28 April
2011] Since January 2005,
Marg Ward, an Australian nurse from Ballina, has been working with street
kids in the Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) Baoji Children's Center in Xinhua News Agency,
March 7, 2005 www.china.org.cn/english/2005/Mar/121989.htm [accessed 28 April
2011] Zhang stated that
there are at least 150,000 homeless children wandering the country's cities,
most of them from underdeveloped rural areas.
"Most of these children are suffering from inadequate daily
necessities and have no chance to receive a normal education, which has a
lifelong negative impact on their physical and mental health. Some of them
even become criminals," Zhang said. Providing AIDS Care
And Helping Street Children Médecins Sans Frontières MSF, International Activity Report 2004 www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/ar/report.cfm?id=991%20&cat=activity-report [accessed 28 April
2011] www.msf.org/en/china-providing-aids-care-and-helping-street-children [accessed 27
November 2016] MSF continues to
provide psychosocial support to marginalized children in Baoji city, Shaanxi
province. In CTV.ca News Staff,
Feb. 12 2005 -- With files from CTV's Steve Chao chinadigitaltimes.net/2005/02/chinese-street-children-struggle-to-survive/ [accessed 8 Aug 2013] When Joseph Song
was a young boy, he was one of many Chinese children who roamed the streets
working for the little money he would never see. These days, the 19-year-old helps run a
sanctuary for street children. New study reveals
nationwide system of arbitrary detention Human Rights in
China, Inc., September 29, 1999 www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/archive/old?y=1999&m=9&p=30_4 [accessed 28 April
2011] To
"prepare" for the National Day celebrations, for some months police
in cities across the country have been detaining people in a
"clean-up" campaign to clear the streets of those deemed
undesirable by urban authorities. The vast majority of detainees are ordinary
migrant workers. Other prime targets include All
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