Lost childhoods: Street children and the problem of drug and sexual abuse

Pratiti Shirin writes for DOT : 
For Sarah Ariannas to whom we owe a better world. Recently, we have seen a number of brave individuals coming forward with their stories of sexual abuse. Their purpose was to expose the perpetrators. But what about those who don’t make it to the Me Too march? What about the most vulnerable sections of society who don’t or won’t make it to the Me Too forum? DOT has been publishing a series of case studies of children’s sexual abuse and a few days ago, a renowned newspaper published a series of features on street children and substance abuse. The reporters of those features followed those children not only for days but in a few cases, over years, in order to obtain their stories of substance abuse. The features reveal a connection between substance abuse and sexual exploitation. It is as if the two go hand in hand. Drug abuse is a common problem for street children not only in Bangladesh but in other countries such as India too. According to a recent study carried out on the streets of Dhaka city, sniffing dendrite or shoe glue is the most common substance to which over 80 per cent of street children are addicted to. Street children resort to abusing dendrite as a means to surviving street life but also as part of a social ritual by which they find acceptance into various social gangs. According to this study, 70 per cent of these children wished to quit sniffing dendrite once they understood the fatal consequences of this addiction some of which are acute respiratory failure, brain, liver and kidney damage and choking. But like any other substance addiction, it is better said than done. According to another source, children between six and seventeen take other narcotics such as yaba, phensedyl, heroin and cannabis. They are often employed by drug dealers to sell narcotics in exchange of 50 -100 taka per day. According to a survey carried out by ICDDRB in 2016, there are 445000 street children living in Bangladesh. Of these, 300000 are found on the streets of Dhaka alone and the number is increasing every day. According to the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), children aged between 8 and 10 years are addicted to cannabis, cigarettes and glue sniffing wile older children take phensedyl and heroin.
A significant connection has been found between substance abuse and risky sexual behaviour. According to a report published by the World Bank, sniffing glue and abusing other substances contribute more to risky sexual practices after controlling for other factors. Respondents who were currently using glue only were 3 times more likely to have had sex ever whereas respondents who used glue and other narcotics were 4 times more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour. Sniffing of glue along with other types of drug addiction were statistically found to be more significant among street children for engaging in risky sexual behaviour than sleeping on the street at night. Although girls are less likely than boys to be addicted, girls are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour. Condom use was not found to be statistically significant in this study. According to another report, street children are trapped in a cycle of substance abuse, poverty and sexual exploitation. Sexual abuse becomes easy if children are high on drugs like glue and what starts as a rape eventually turns into prostitution which children resort to in order to obtain money to buy drugs.
There are organizations which help in bringing out such children out of addiction. But real help requires getting them off the street which is not an easy task. Unless there is a complete rehabilitation, usually there is a relapse to drugs and substance abuse throws only little light on the tip of the iceberg called street children which is a social problem related to a whole bunch of other problems like poverty, illiteracy and urban migration. So, unless and until these problems are taken care of, substance abuse and sexual exploitation among street children are likely to be acute problems in the near future.
The writer is an Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.