Street children in cities of Chandigarh and Karnal Haryana a study of problems and coping stratergies

Abstract

Street children are worldwide phenomenon. The size and magnitude of the street children vary from country to country. These are the most vulnerable and marginalized group of the society which mostly concentrated in urban and semi-urban cities. They face stigmatization, discrimination and violence by the mainstream society. Therefore, there is need to study their socio-economic and health profile, nature of work, nature of problems and coping mechanisms adopted by them in their daily life survival. In present study city Chandigarh and city Karnal has selected for research purpose. Sample of 200 street children are selected for this regard. Sample of 100 respondents from city Chandigarh and 100 from city Karnal has selected by using purposive and convenience sampling method. This study is descriptive in nature. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have used. Quantitative data collect through Interview Schedule, IPER Basic Need Measurement Index and Dependency Status Index and qualitative data collects through Focus Group Discussion and Case Study method. Thus, result depict that more than half of the respondents from Chandigarh and Karnal belong to the 8-14 years age group. They migrated from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab in the research areas. Respondents found to work as bagger, selling eatable goods, selling goods and work as rag pickers. Result demonstrate that range level of general needs, psychological needs and sociological needs of the respondents were found moderately satisfied. Range of total dependency signify respondents moderately dependent in both research areas but respondents from Karnal depict higher moderately dependency than respondents from Chandigarh on their caregivers. About the nature of problem result shows that 28% respondents from city Chandigarh and 33% from city Karnal confront abuse in their daily lives which includes physical, verbal, emotional, sexual financial abuse, neglect, exploitation and social security issues.