What causes children to run to the streets?
A child’s departure from home is seldom sudden, despite common conceptions to the contrary. Rather, it usually takes the form of a series of steps in which individuals find out more about the urban environment, investigate work opportunities and make contact with homeless children. Similarly, the factor prompting departure is less commonly a single event than is often thought – rather, it is often a combination of stressors on different causal levels, as suggested in a recent ILO report: Immediate: the reason why a child may leave home and go to work or live on the streets could be a sudden drop in family income; loss of support from an adult family member due to illness, death or abandonment; or an episode of domestic violence. Underlying: chronic impoverishment, cultural expectations (such as the idea that a boy should go to work on the streets as soon as he is able), desire for consumer goods, or the lure of the city. • Structural: factors such as development shocks, structural adju
