Hyderabad : A study conducted by an NGO has found 28,560 street children in the city, with boys outnumbering the girls. The survey, conducted by NGO 'Save the Children' for five months between September 2015 and January this year covering all 150 wards of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation
(GHMC), showed boys constitute 61 per cent and girls are 39 per cent of the street children population.
The street children were categorised under three groups, street-living children who live alone on street without a family or adult blood relative, street-working children those who work on streets or public places but return to their families, and children of street families who are homeless but stay with the family on streets.
According to the NGO's study, the findings of which was released today, 70 per cent of street children fall into the category of street-working children who work on the streets but return to their families after work.
Nearly 15 per cent of them are from the homeless families living on the pavements. About 3 per cent children are found to be in the category of street-living children who live without any family our blood relative, the study said.
The 'others' constitute more than 11 per cent of street children. These children spend most of their time in streets (playing on streets or accompanying parents to their work place). Thy are neither homeless nor working and hence
labelled as 'others'.
The census study has revealed that the place of origin of majority of street children (78.7 per cent) are villages of Telangana followed by migrants from Andhra Pradesh who account for 12 per cent of them. Karnataka and Rajasthan account for 2.35 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.
The major hot spots found in the survey were public places - railway stations, bus stops, places of worship, spaces under the bridges/flyovers and children homes. In addition, construction sites, graveyards and dumping yards
also emerged as important hot spots, it said.
The study also found that the age distribution of street children is skewed towards those in the age group of 10-18 years and the age group below 10 years constitute 41 per cent of the population.
Girls are mostly engaged in activities such as domestic help and begging, while boys are engaged vending on the streets and construction work, the study said, adding over 16 per cent children who are working are ragpickers followed by
those vending on streets and working in roadside food stalls.
