The last two decades, many reforms have been introduced in the country, some of which have a positive impact on society, while others have not. But it clearly became clear that a layer of people has appeared who are completely unadapted to survival in modern conditions, they are not competitive in absolutely all spheres of life. Their way of life is also called the "social bottom". These include: the homeless, the poor and homeless. According to some reports, their number is approaching 25% of the total population. And it seems that society has come to terms with this and takes the fact of the presence of homeless children for granted.
Terminology
In the media, homelessness and neglect are often confused, describing children who are seen begging at the metro station, at the station. But few people know that some children beg for alms on the street during the day, and come home at night to spend the night, that is, they are actually under the supervision of their parents.
But homelessness is a social phenomenon in which a child loses all family ties and permanent residence. These children provide their own food, live in uninhabitable places, and are subject to informal laws.
Federal Law No. 120-FZ clearly regulates and delimits all concepts:
- Ghostless. This is a minor who is not controlled by parents (due to non-performance or improper performance of their duties), but it has a permanent place of residence and parents or guardians.
- Homeless. This is also neglected, but without a permanent place of residence or stay. In fact, such a child can be called a “little bum.”
Another broad category is children deprived of parental care. These are guys who are in orphanages, not adopted, studying in military schools on the full support of the state, and so on. But such children are at least supervised and do not belong to either the first or second category.
It is unfortunate that usually all these concepts are confused, saying that homelessness is the scourge of our time and that there were fewer such children even after the war. In fact, not everything is so tragic, if you delve into the essence of the matter.
Why is this happening
Trouble in the family, as a rule, leads to difficulties in the development of the child's personality. The provoking factors include constant conflicts in the family, a bad attitude towards the child. At the same time, the last category is understood not only as a lack of control, but also overprotection.
Children's homelessness usually appears in families,where alcohol and/or drugs are abused. Where there is no material well-being or the family leads an abnormal lifestyle, for example, refugees or nomadic gypsies. In families where parents have mental disabilities, there is also a big risk that the child will go on the street.
The low cultural and social level of parents often causes children to be homeless. If parents do not know how to read and write, they are not interested in anything, then they are unlikely to be able to give a normal upbringing to the child. Strong employment of parents also often causes homelessness.
But the main reason is the negative psychological climate in the family. If there is no trust, love and affection, then children grow up with a constant sense of anxiety, often withdrawn and cruel.
Post-war years
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, a new surge of homelessness began. It was a really hard time for the whole country, and there is even some justification for this. The state on a permanent basis nevertheless took measures to reduce the number of children on the streets, new laws were adopted, orphanages and colonies were opened.
In the post-war years, the situation only worsened. According to statistics, in the 60s of the last century there were about 1 million children in orphanages.
A similar situation was observed before and after the revolution, but then less attention was paid to this issue.
Second surge
Economic and politicalcataclysms in any country are provoking factors that entail an increase in the number of offenses, a deterioration in the material well-being of citizens and, of course, an increase in homelessness of minors. After the war, a second surge in homelessness was observed in the 1990s and 2000s.
People were getting poorer and poorer, against which more and more mental illness appeared, many people had an unstable emotional state. Naturally, such problems in society could not but affect minors.
An important role in this was played by increased criminalization in society, prostitution and drug trafficking flourished. There are no true statistics on homelessness in these years.
Present
Homelessness is indeed a problem in our society, but the scale of the modern catastrophe has not yet been established. There is a lot of data on the number of homeless people, but they are all so different that it is quite difficult to understand where the truth is.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that the phenomenon itself is hidden or the methods of counting are different.
In 2002, Gryzlov B. gave a figure of 2.5 million homeless children, and the Prosecutor General in the same year said that the figure was closer to 3 million.
According to official figures, in 2015 there were about 128 thousand homeless children. Although the officials themselves admit that there is no single database of homeless children, therefore these data do not at all reflect the real picture in society. And if it's abouthomeless and neglected minors, then we can talk about 2-4 million.
Modern statistics
Today, data are provided that are calculated according to the following formula: the number of homeless children per 10,000 adolescents aged 10 to 19 years=the number of street children found in 12 months / the share of adolescents from 10 to 19 years old in the structure population X total population.
According to these data, in 2017, for every 10,000 teenagers in the Republic of Tuva, there were the most minors of this category - 482.8, and the least in Ingushetia - 0.1.
Features
If we compare the homeless of the revolutionary, wartime and modern years, these are completely different psychotypes. Today, a child living on the street will not take care of a dog, and even if he does, he will most likely scoff at her.
Favorite food - chocolate bars and carbonated drinks, for such products it is not a pity to spend money. They eat alone so that the food is not taken away or the cost of the purchase is not compared with the money earned.
Very talkative street children are very few, usually the lexicon is very poor. Due to frequent colds and nerves, the voice becomes hoarse. They rarely call each other by their first names, usually they call: “you” or “hey”, but they can also give nicknames based on the external characteristics of a particular child.
Modern homeless children are not annoying, unobtrusive,willingly communicate with people and journalists who give money or buy food in return.
If in the old days children only stole on the streets, now the range of professions has expanded, they collect bottles, scrap metal, but they also do not neglect petty thefts. Begging is usually done between the ages of 6 and 10. There is a category of "renters", that is, children (boys and girls) who provide sexual services to persons of different sexes.
But the worst thing is that "street children" become drug addicts and alcoholics in childhood, so they die early, and even if they try to return to normal life, it is very rarely possible.
Methods of struggle
Today, there is a whole network of special institutions in the country, the main task of which is to reduce the number of children on the streets and combat homelessness.
These are social and rehabilitation centers, reception centers, temporary isolation institutions, psychological and pedagogical institutions, guardianship and guardianship authorities, commissions for minors, and so on.
All these institutions are designed to solve four main groups of problems associated with social homelessness:
- psychological;
- medical;
- educational;
- social and legal.
But if you look at the streets of a modern Russian city, then all these events solve the problem only partially.
