Mystery behind boys ending up in the street.

In most cities and towns, there is this group of marginalized people who spend a greater part of their lives on the street. They are the street children commonly referred to as the “chokoras” who consider the street to be the best place. In most cases they are forced to run away from home due to certain reasons. It is surprising that in most cases boys or male children are the ones who end up in the street.

Some of the reasons why most boys end up in the street include: effect of peer pressure especially from the friends who are already disillusioned in life, abandonment by caregivers who should be on the forefront of helping them to be responsible people in future, harsh or violent nature of the homes that they live in since some parents or caregivers tend to use threatening language towards their male children or even sometimes subject them to physical abuse.

Some societies are also very irresponsible especially to orphaned male children. This is because of their traditional beliefs that every male child must be allocated some land when they become adults. But then as a way of avoiding that responsibility they literally abandon responsibility of this particular male child. This in most cases makes them to feel that the home environment is becoming more and more unconducive for living.

For them to survive while on the streets, they often beg for assistance from motorists that are stuck on traffic but none of them cares to give them an ear. They sometimes carry luggage for people or even clean business premises in conjunction with the city county councils just to get some little money that they can use to buy either food or “glue.”

In Kenya especially is very hard to find a female child on the street. This is because the law has taken keen notice of protecting them from any kind of abuse. Since most are always slaves to the law, they accept to protect them and since there is no law of protecting the male child they are then exposed to so many forms of exploitation. Ranging from verbal to physical abuse.

While along the street, they are always exposed to numerous challenges. These challenges include: starvation, poor hygienic and sanitation conditions, violence which in most cases are within themselves, drug and substance abuse, emotional torture and sexual exploitation which predisposes them to high risk of contracting HIV/ AIDS.

The parents or the caregivers should love their children equally without showing partiality for only children of a specific gender. Parents should also be responsible in their actions. Irresponsible parents can make a family to disintegrate and when a child notices that the family structure is weak, they will easily take advantage to an extent that they will be easily swayed by the waves from peers. The community should also take care of the orphans so that they do not move away from the community to join the streets while in pursuit for serene environment.

The government should craft ways of protecting the boy child from any kind of harassment and violence that forces them to consider the street as the best place for them.