Street children deserve our attention
The 1980s and 90s saw a growing global concern for the rights and welfare of children, culminating in the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the General Assembly of the United Nations on November 20, 1989.
This was closely followed by the adoption of the Organisation of African Unity’s Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government held in Addis Ababa in 1990.
Besides the general concern for the rights and welfare of children in especially difficult circumstances is the other growing international problem of the rising number of street children in urban areas, mostly in the developing world.
Sad to say, the passage of these international conventions has done very little to deal with the issue of a growing number of children getting on the streets in developing countries.
Currently in Ghana, the principal streets of the urban centres, especially the national capital, have become breeding ground for hordes of street children and even youth who are begging for alms, hawking and offering to wipe the windscreens of motorists.
To further complicate the problem, a number of them have become hoodlums who engage in criminal enterprises, such as breaking into the vehicles of motorists and stealing their valuables and threatening to inflict harm on them if they fail to part with their money.
The statistics are frightening. For instance, in Accra alone, the number of street children has almost tripled from 35,000 in 2013 to 90,000 in 2014, according to official figures.
The Daily Graphic is very worried about this worrying trend because the biggest loser in all of this is the country, considering the fact that children under the age of 15 in Ghana are 38.01 per cent of the total population.
Street children are seen to lack the primary socialisation and modelling framework of the family that is thought to foster healthy growth and development. As such, they are seen to be developmentally at risk, more so when the youth constitute the most important human resource potential that can contribute significantly to the overall development of a nation.
The idea of children, and even the youth, on the streets offends both the supreme law of the land, the 1992 Constitution, and the Children’s Act.
While the Constitution, under the The Directive Principles of State Policy, obligates the state to protect the rights of its citizens, especially the aged, children and the vulnerable in society, the Children's Act states that under no circumstance should a person below the age of 15 be allowed to work or fend for himself or herself.
Therefore, the increasing phenomenon of streetism is a menace which could potentially become a national security problem.
The Daily Graphic strongly urges the government, the international bodies, non-governmental and faith-based organisations to step up efforts to address the menace.
It is quite clear that all the governmental interventions that seek to take children and young adults off the streets are hardly impactful, looking at the sheer number of children and young adults on the streets.
We appeal to the authorities to do a thorough impact assessment of all the interventions and continue to explore more sustainable ways of dealing with the issue and also reintegrate these children and young adults into society and ensure their proper development.