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Experiences of Abuse Among Street Children: Nature, Magnitude and Practices

Khwairakpam Sharmila and Sukhminder Kaur

Objective: The prime objective of the research is to determine the nature, magnitude and practices of abuse among street children by their parents.

Design: Self-structured Interview Schedule.

Setting: The sample was selected from various crowded places of Ludhiana city such as railway station, bus depots, traffic lights, market places, temples etc using a snowball sampling technique. One of the criteria for sample selection was that the street children should be home based.

Participants: 160 street children (9-12 years) equally distributed over gender.

Main Outcome Measures: Age and gender differences in the method of punishment inflicted upon street children by parents were determined.

Results: Majority of the street children (92.50%) experienced abused by their parents. The most predominantly used punishment was scolding (83.44%) followed by spanking/slapping (47.96%), twisting ears or hands (37.50%), beating (30.74%), verbally abusing (20.94%) and yelling (20.26%). The most predominantly used mode of physical punishment by the parents was stick followed by other objects such as switch, shoes, broom and rod. Fathers were found to be stricter and exhibited more negative attitude towards the children compared to mothers.

Conclusion: Street children experienced both physical as well as verbal abuse by their parents. Most of the children experienced beating/punishment frequently by their parents because of varied reasons such as disobeying parents, misbehaving with parents, making too many demands, using abusive language, not going for work, etc.