Street children: definition, causes and consequences

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Street children are a sad social phenomenon that is still found in many countries of the world, including Russia. It is associated with the complete removal of a minor from the family, while accompanied by the loss of employment and place of residence. This is the ultimate manifestation of neglect. This phenomenon threatens the correct formation of the personality of the child and adolescent, contributes to the development of negative social skills. Among the hallmarks of homelessness are the complete cessation of ties with family and relatives, living in places not intended for this, subordination to informal laws, obtaining food through theft or begging. In this article, we will give a definition of this concept, talk about its causes and consequences.

Definition

Street children should be distinguished from neglected children. These concepts are divided evenin the federal Russian law, which was adopted in 1999. It focuses on juvenile delinquency prevention and neglect systems.

In the document, a minor citizen is considered neglected, whose behavior no one controls due to improper fulfillment of duties for training or education.

Street children in Russia include only those who do not have a permanent place of residence or place of stay. As a result, under federal law, the key difference is that the street child has no place of residence.

Reasons

Street children appear on the streets of different countries of the world for approximately the same reasons, which are of a socio-economic nature. Basically, these are revolutions, wars, natural disasters, famine, and other changes in living conditions that lead to the appearance of orphans.

Among the factors that contribute to the growth of homelessness, it should be noted unemployment, economic and financial crises, child exploitation, extreme need, antisocial behavior of parents, conflict situations in families, child abuse.

Medical and psychological reasons can also be identified. For example, the propensity of a minor to antisocial behavior.

In Soviet times, it was noted that it was possible to successfully fight this phenomenon only in the conditions of a socialist society, when the causes of the appearance and development of this phenomenon were eliminated. It was emphasized that the psychologymoral isolation of the individual from the interests of society and individualism only exacerbates the situation, contributes to the emergence of new street children.

Psychology

Homeless children have a special psychology compared to other children. They have increased excitability, a stronger instinct for self-preservation, as a rule, they are prone to artificial pathogens, in particular, to alcohol and drugs. At the same time, they have a heightened sense of compassion and justice, they express their emotions very clearly.

Some people start having sex too early. In physical terms, they are distinguished by activity, endurance, and are prone to group actions. The life goals of such teenagers are shifted towards obtaining momentary pleasure and psychological comfort.

Homeless children in Russia

Street children have appeared in Russia since time immemorial. At the same time, in the times of Ancient Russia, in the tribal community, there was an attitude that everyone should take care of the child together if he remained an orphan. When Christianity was adopted, state policy also involved the care of children who found themselves without parents. For example, the corresponding article existed in Russkaya Pravda.

During the time of Ivan the Terrible, a centralized policy of caring for orphans who end up on the street appears. Orphanages are springing up under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchal Order.

Since the 16th century, there has been an order of the Stoglavy Cathedral, which obliges the creation of almshouses at churches forhomeless children. They use a pedagogical principle based on education with moderate punishment.

In the Russian Empire

This issue was also de alt with under Peter I. He encouraged the opening of orphanages in every possible way, in which even illegitimate children were accepted, keeping the secret of their origin. In 1706, one of the largest state shelters in the country was built at the Kholmovo-Uspensky Monastery. In the so-called orphan monasteries, homeless children were taught arithmetic, literacy, and even geometry. In 1718, Peter issued a decree on sending beggars and young children to manufactories, where they were provided with work.

The next step was taken by Catherine II. Under her rule, shelters and foster homes appeared, in which the child was left for a while, and then sent to an analogue of a modern foster family.

The Orthodox Church assumed special responsibilities. Asylums regularly appeared at the monasteries, in which they received orphaned children. They were raised, cared for and treated. By the 19th century, almost all major monasteries had orphanages and almshouses.

It is noteworthy that in the Russian Empire, many such institutions were self-supporting, which required the constant involvement of new children in production. They belonged not only to the church, but also to state structures. In particular, the Ministry of the Interior and military departments.

Change in approach

The view of homeless children changed radically when themajor judicial reforms. Directions appeared that were supposed to prevent the commission of offenses by minors. Basically, they existed on a voluntary basis. Their activities were aimed at preventing children from the pernicious influence of prison, organizing their upbringing and education. Special institutions were created for juvenile convicts to avoid their contact with criminal elements when they were caught for petty crimes for the first time.

When legislation began to develop, special courts arose that de alt exclusively with minors. Institutions for teenagers actively cooperated with them. The law of 1909 established special educational and preventive institutions, the regime in which outwardly looked like a prison.

For example, teenagers were voluntarily sent to the Warsaw Orphanage of the Patronage Society in Struga after their release from prison in Warsaw. They received physical education and vocational education.

In the USSR

At the very beginning of the existence of the Soviet state, the number of homeless children increased dramatically, which was facilitated by social upheavals. This is the First World War and the October Revolution. By the end of the Civil War, according to various estimates, there were from four to seven million street children on the street.

To solve this issue in the Soviet Union massively open orphanages and create labor communes for minors. It is believed that by the mid-30syears of child homelessness was finally eliminated. To this end, various measures have been taken. For example, the People's Commissariat of Communications created special detachments to detain minors who traveled by train. They should have been provided with food and even cultural leisure. Then they went to orphanages.

In 1935, the Council of People's Commissars noted that the material situation of the workers had improved significantly. Many children's institutions have been opened in the country, so a small part of homeless children who remain on the street is nothing more than a statistical error, a lack of preventive work. An important role in correcting the situation was played by the public role in the upbringing of children, measures to combat juvenile delinquency, increasing the responsibility of parents for their upbringing.

Current situation

As sad as it is to admit, photos of homeless children can also be found in today's Russia. A significant increase in their number was observed in the early 90s after another social cataclysm. This time it was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Factors that contributed to child homelessness were poverty, the economic crisis, and rampant unemployment. In addition, many families were in a psychological and moral crisis, family foundations themselves were significantly weakened, and mental illness was widespread.

Exact statistics of homeless children in Russia is not kept, but the reasons for this phenomenon are clear. ATOfficial documents of the Federation Council state that the destruction of the state infrastructure in the upbringing and socialization of children and the family crisis contributed to the growth of homelessness. The latter was affected by a significant deterioration in living conditions, an increase in poverty, the destruction of educational potential and moral values.

Another contributing factor is the criminalization of society. In modern Russia, various types of crimes are widespread. Homelessness is primarily affected by drug addiction and prostitution. In addition, the state is not able to carry out the necessary control of employers who involved minors in illegal business.

The number of homeless children is also increasing due to illegal migration. Children come to large cities from the former Soviet republics, often without adults. They are forced to flee even worse economic conditions or armed conflicts.

In the 2000s, there has been a decrease in the number of homeless children. In Russia, a corresponding federal target program has been developed. The number of homeless children in Russia is declining. Federal officials say the program is working. For example, from 2003 to 2005, the number of homeless children in Russia decreased by more than three thousand people.

The United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF cites the numbers of homeless and neglected children who were delivered to medical institutions during the year. According to statistics, about 65 thousand street children were admitted to hospitals and polyclinics in 2005. Note that these figures also appear to include street children.

At the same time, many argue that recently the data on the number of homeless children in the country have been exaggerated by individual officials. There is an opinion that this is done in order to create new jobs in the public service. Answering the question of how many homeless children there are in Russia, high-ranking officials often gave figures of two to four million people. At the same time, it is worth recognizing that there is no and cannot be exact statistics and reporting, therefore all data look approximate. After analyzing various documents, one should come to the conclusion that the real number of homeless children in the country does not exceed several thousand people. Of course, if you do not include difficult teenagers and those who temporarily run away from home. This is how many homeless children there are in Russia at present.

Consequences

For society, child homelessness has very serious consequences. First of all, it is the growth of crimes and offenses among minors. In particular, alcoholism, prostitution, drug addiction. There is a spread of serious diseases - tuberculosis, hepatitis, genital infections.

Left without a livelihood, homeless children are regularly subjected to criminal and commercial exploitation. They are involved in various areas of illegal business: prostitution, alcohol and tobacco trade, pornographic business, begging. All this is associated with serious risks for the social and psychologicaldevelopment, physical he alth.

Since the 90s, the number of minors affected by drug addiction, alcoholism and substance abuse, syphilis and AIDS has been increasing in the country.

Help

In Russia, there are centers to help homeless children. They are engaged in social support for teenagers who have experience in criminal activity, vagrancy, use of narcotic or psychotropic substances. Their activities are aimed at preventing negative consequences for the child, maintaining the educational functions of the family, if it still exists.

The main task of social work with street children is an individual approach to a minor while maintaining his interpersonal relationships. In this regard, lectures and thematic discussions are held, circles and interest clubs are created. Work with street children is carried out according to individual cards of social adaptation. This is important to do even when the minor is in deep social deprivation.

The technology of social work with homeless children is based on the fact that deviant behavior of adolescents is due to the fact that earlier their life was extremely monotonous, because of which they did not live positive life situations, did not acquire adequate social experience. Therefore, it is important to create conditions for them in which they could get this experience.

To do this, there are several principles of helping street children. They are based on a non-judgmental approach to analyzing their behavior, creating conditions in which they could achievesuccess in any kind of activity, conviction in the high efficiency of the proposed methods.

Specialized institutions in which such teenagers are placed are educational and educational. In them, the education of children is built on an individual basis, it can be carried out in several ways. For example, in classes of compensatory education, vocational schools or on the basis of a comprehensive school.

Studies show that domestic violence is now the main reason for leaving the family and turning into a street child. Children have to deal with situations where they are beaten, severely punished, raped, not fed, forced to engage in activities that are unusual for them, such as begging. Most of the teenagers who ended up on the street cite family conflicts as one of the main reasons why they got into this situation.

Children become objects of negative emotional release for parents when they have to face personal and socio-economic setbacks. For example, with a divorce, loss of a job or material security. The feeling of disappointment, resentment and powerlessness to change anything causes a lot of negative emotions that splash out on children.

Concluding, it should be noted that now one of the main factors of child neglect is the violation of their rights and freedoms in the field of he alth improvement, education, housing and profession. There is also a role for guardianship and guardianship authorities in this, which do not respond in a timely manner to emerging problems. Services unable to resolveemerging issues of education and life of minors. The danger of the situation lies in the fact that street children are increasingly involved in the sex business, prostitution, are used to film pornographic films. All this brings irreparable harm to their spiritual, mental and moral development. The growing neglect of children is a consequence of economic and social upheavals in society.