Microfinance and street children: is microfinance an appropriate tool to address the street children issue ?

4.2. Street children economic activities

In order to assess correctly the demand for financial services, we need to understand the economic activities in which the street children, who took part in our research, are involved.

During our research, the majority of street children were found to have a job and quite innovative ways to earn money. Our previous chapter underlined that street children are particularly present in the informal labour market, and our findings in Dhaka do confirm it.

Padakhep identified more than 30 economic activities in which street children are involved: carpenter, mason, small trade, shopkeeper, welding, van puller, rickshaw puller, driver, scavenger, day labour, trainees, sales boy, iron man, garments, domestic helper, garage work, boutique work, hotel boy, Tokai, bakery, water seller, tea stall worker, helper, sewing, service, factory, vender, beggar, Minti, electrical work, beautician, packet making, etc. As we see, the range of economic activities is long and shows how street children have a broad imagination in finding income generating activities.

We can segregate those occupations into two broad categories: trade related activities and wage related activities.

Regarding their trade related activities, the majority of children were found to work as «Tokai», a Bangali term who defines a child who moves around the town to pick up various used items like papers, bottles, shoes, clothes, etc in order to sell them. Many were reselling those items around different markets (especially Kawran Bazaar) and were earning 30 TK to 50 TK daily.

Some other sell flowers, snacks (chips, chocolates, etc) or cigarettes in the streets. Some, like Swapon, are also selling vegetables:

Swapon is a young boy of 16 years old. He used to be ill-treated by his parents and thus decided, one day, to leave home and look for happiness in the streets. He was then 12 years old. However, he quickly understood that the street life was far to be easy and that he needed to work in order to survive. He therefore decided to use his negotiating skills and found a way to buy vegetables at 8Tk per kg and to resell it 9 TK.

Others are involved in seasonal businesses, and reported to earn quite high during those occasional periods.

For example, many children buy food during Ramadan and sell it for «iftar»^42(*). Children highly valued those seasonal businesses and pointed out how they were earning significantly during those periods (i.e. a daily profit up to 200 TK).

Some were involved in wage related activities. The most recurrent job among them was the «Minti» i.e. persons who carry luggage - fish or vegetables and other goods for shop owners and customers- in markets, railway stations, bus stations and shops. It is the informal equivalent of the «Cooli», who does the same job but is registered with the government and earn higher wage rates (ILO, 2003). Having visited this vegetable market at night, we found that street children were working there under difficult conditions. They were generally working all the day. In the evening, they rest a bit, before starting again to work by midnight (when the first trucks come). Then, they work all the night until early morning.

Other wage related activities include jobs such as van pullers, where children unload and push trucks and rickshaws.

As for the wages, they vary on the job involved and the age of the worker. For example, young «Minti» (from 8 to 12 years old) earn between 30 to 50Tk daily. Older children, working as Minti, earn between 50 and 70 Tk daily. Many children had seasonal businesses and were reported to earn consequently during those periods. For example, many children sell «iftar» during Ramadan and earn up to 200 Tk daily. Other children, such as hotel boys, get a salary partly in cash and partly in nature, receive a package: a small salary in cash, plus a place for sleeping and food from the hotel.

Street children involved in embroidery earn between 100 to 250 TK, depending on the quantity, intensity and quality of work (Iglebaeck and Hassan, 2005).

Some are lucky to find a job at Padakhep (in the drop-in-center), as peer educators, and earn 1000 Tk/ month. Others are working as employees in Padakhep Bipanon, a retail shop created by Padakhep.

Whenever talking about their preferences, children reported how wage related activities (such as Minti and van pullers) were not appreciated, because people often were blaming and insulting them. Iglebaeck and Hassan (2005) confirm this finding and indicate that those jobs are in general hazardous and not valued by children themselves.

Their dream was to leave their current jobs and to start their own businesses. So, the desire for self-employment was highly visible, as those children perceived it as a way to earn higher income and to avoid hazardous working conditions

When discussing the reasons underpinning their working activities, street children pointed out, logically, that they were working in order to meet their financial needs, which can be grouped in two categories:

· Present financial needs: it does include day-to-day basic expenditures, such as food, transportation and clothes; these scored particularly high in the street children spending portfolio.

· Future financial needs: it does include expenditures such as supporting family, buying medicines, paying for education or investing in an income generating activity.

* ⁴² Ramadan is a Muslim festival, lasting one month, where the believers fast during the daytime and eat at the sunset.