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

4. CONSEQUENCES, OR WHY IT MERITS OUR ATTENTION?

The consequences of the street children predicament are numerous, both for the child and the society at large, and can be categorized as social as well as economic.

Undeniably, life in the streets can be extremely damaging for the child. Our first section sketched some characteristics of the street children, and indicated how they are experiencing health problems, neglect, violence and abuse. Indeed, those children may experience some forms of exclusion from the official and institutional parts of society and rarely treated with respect, their views and opinions being seldom taken into consideration by anyone (West, 2003). Life in the streets prevents also children from getting education, and the dilemma between «education» and «work» is a complex one. As pointed by West (2003), «work» is not the only reason that prevents children from getting education, as children do not generally see it as mutually exclusive, but the core explaining factor might be the discrimination, as the official and institutional parts of society exclude them partly because of their «perceived» picture of criminal.

We have also pointed out how much work is an integrated part of their daily life, and that many children are working for their families and themselves. Moreover, many are experiencing very hazardous working conditions, being therefore economically exploited, impacting therefore their development.

Combining social consequences as well as economical exploitation, we could assert that street children are living in an extreme poverty situation, Marshall (nd)^27(*) defining childhood poverty as «growing up without an adequate livelihood, without opportunities for human development, without family and community structures that nurture and protect children, and growing up without opportunity for voice.» So, severe and chronic poverty^28(*) are both a cause and a consequence of the street children predicament.

Secondly, the street children issue has an impact on the society at large. Indeed, some street children in some parts of the world can be found in the drug trade, as they are cheaper to hire, and the majority of them do use chemical inhalants, such as solvents, adhesives and fuel gases, local drugs, or even alcohol and tobacco (Blanc, 1994). Some studies report e.g. that 75 percent of street children in Brazil, and increasing numbers in the Philippines, Kenya and Italy use dangerous substances (Alexander and al., 1993)^29(*). This situation can increase considerably the criminality climate in some metropolitan cities. Moreover, when street children come into contact with the «bourgeoisie», it can generate unfortunate economic, political and social consequences, including some that are extremely damaging to the social order, as they are often perceived as threats to property and physical integrity (Moura, 1997).

However, stating this must not push us to blame and shame those children, as this is only true in some parts of the world and for some street children, but this argument must give incentive to governments to find a sustainable and effective way of acting, first for the well-being of children, and second for the well-being of all the society. Besides, many have outlined the intergenerational transmission of poverty in developing countries, describing how a poor child will have a higher likelihood to become a poor adult (see e.g. Moore, 2001) ; and the impact of adult poverty on a society is never good, as it is damaging the economic and social development of the society. This calls therefore for a necessity to invest in children and youth at risk. In such a perspective, the World Bank also points out how political and economic costs of not investing in children and youth are high, and that the sooner this investment is done, the higher will be the returns (World Bank, 2005).

* ²⁷ Quoted in Iglebaeck and Hassan (2005)

* ²⁸ For more explanations about the concepts of severe and chronic poverty, see Hulme, Shepherd and Moore (2001)

* ²⁹ Quoted in Blanc (1994)