5534 street children live in Guwahati, says a survey

A total of 5534 street children live in Guwahati, the Gateway to the North East, with the majority being in the age group of 12-17 years, a survey conducted by an NGO said.
Of them, 80.5 per cent are boys, according to the study report released here today.
Majority of the children were in the age group of 10 years and above, with those in the age bracket of 10-14 years constituting close to half of the street children surveyed.
About 60 per cent of the children's place of origin was Assam followed by West Benagl at 31.1 per cent, the survey pointed out.

A significant 42 per cent of the children had never been to school.
Unsafe places such as street and railway platforms were the place of stay for most children with no education, it said.

There was a significant association between education and place of stay of street children with primary and upper primary educated children mostly living in slums and this attributes to the availability of affordable education close to the slums, the study pointed out.
Younger children were largely engaged in rag picking (58 per cent) or in begging (23 per cent) and the older ones were in selling wares or work in shops.

Savings behaviour of the children showed that only 21 per cent saved money and a majority of 56.2 per cent tried to finish the money as soon as possible, the study said.