In my own candid opinion,it anchors on the fundamental question of state values on governance, leadership and education.

The reasons for street children's existence in developing countries are related to poverty, the fundamental question of state values on governance, leadership and education. And maybe because France - Macron, the new French president, has no children. Germany - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has no children. England - British Prime Minister Theresa May has no children. Italy - Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has no children. Sweden's Stefan Löfven, Mark Rutte from the Netherlands, Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland, Xavier Bettel of Luxembourg, - all have no children. The European Commission - Jean-Claude Juncker, has no children. Romania - Klaus Werner Iohannis, does not have children.

The way you see people is how you treat them. And the way you treat them is what they become. Goethe

Dear scholars,

I thank all of you for these different perspectives about street children. When I try to rank your answers, I realize that the primary cause remains family poverty and to some extent, governance.  However,  the question of culture, religious beliefs, and other subtle factors require another viewpoint. If your answers are appropriate for less developed countries, I still wonder if middle income countries with oil revenues should be seen in terms of poverty and governance. Let us set aside countries facing civil wars and focus on countries in peace with enough mining resources. What can be the theory to impact governance in so-called rich but poor countries?   

The street child emerged as a product and as a result of the lack of communication and individual life. It is one of the reasons for the impatience of the elders and the sudden decision of the children. When the traps of this kind of life are ready in the metropolises, the result is realized.

I feel that so many street children are there because of poverty. Many of the street children are not abandoned, but they contribute to the income of their households by begging, selling newspapers, washing the windows of cars at traffic lights, etc. In this sense I would see street children as part of a strategy of poor to diversify incomes and even small incomes from children can make a difference.

Other street children are indeed abandoned or left their homes because of domestic violence, abuse or at times also because of peer pressures. They are living indeed on the street.

Often this latter category is considered as street children, but for outsiders it is often difficult to distinguish and many people feel that they children they see int he street do not have a proper home, which at times can be incorrect.

As there is no clear definition of street children it cannot be assumed that all children on the streets are homeless. The great majority-well over three-quarters and as many as 90% of the children on the streets in various developing countries work on the streets but live at home and are working to earn money for their families. Estimates of Colombian street children have ranged from 130,000 (UNICEF, 1985) to 25,000 (Goode, 1987). The difference reflects the change

that came about by excluding working children (this information is taken from Lewis Aptekar [undated], Street Children in the Developing World: A Review of Their Condition).

Some literature on the issue that might help to get deeper into the challenges:

Philip L. Kilbride, Enos Njeru, Collette A. Suda

Street Children in Kenya: Voices of Children in Search of a Childhood

0897895290, 9780897895293, 0897898621, 9780897898621

2000.

R. Mickelson

Children on the Streets of the Americas : Globalization, Homelessness and Education in the United States, Brazil, and Cuba

2000

Tobias Hecht

At Home in the Street: Street Children of Northeast Brazil

1998

Mônica Mesquita, Sal Restivo, Ubiratan D'Ambrosio

Asphalt Children and City Streets: A Life, a City, and a Case Study of History, Culture, and Ethnomathematics in São Paulo

Sense Publishers

2011

Lewis Aptekar, Daniel Stoecklin (auth.)

Street Children and Homeless Youth: A Cross-Cultural Perspective [1 ed.]

Springer Netherlands

2014

G.K. Lieten, Talinay Strehl (auth.)

SpringerBriefs in Well-Being and Quality of Life Research 15

Child Street Life: An Inside View of Hazards and Expectations of Street Children in Peru [1 ed.]

Springer International Publishing

2015

Tatek Abebe

Earning a living on the margins: Begging, street work and the socio-spatial experiences of children in Addis Ababa

Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography

Year:2008

Month:

Day:

Volume:90

Issue:3

First page:271

Last page:284

Ferguson, K. M.

Responding to children's street work with alternative income-generation strategies

Sage Publications. International Social Work

Year:2006

Month:11

Day:01

Volume:49

Issue:6

First page:705

Last page:717

Oloko, B. A.

Children's Street Work in Urban Nigeria as Adaptation and Maladaptation to Changing Socioeconomic Circumstances

Sage Publications

International Journal of Behavioral Development

Year:1993

Month:09

Day:01

Volume:16

Issue:3

First page:465

Last page:482

Okoli, R. C. B.; Cree, V. E.

Children's Work: Experiences of Street-Vending Children and Young People in Enugu, Nigeria

Oxford University Press

British Journal of Social Work

Year:2012

Month:01

Day:01

Volume:42

Issue:1

First page:58

Last page:73

Yilmaz, Hatice Bal; Dülgerler, Şeyda

Children who work in the street in Izmir, Turkey

Scientific Journal Publishers

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal

Year:2011

Month:02

Day:01

Volume:39

Issue:1

First page:129

Last page:144

Gebretsadik, Daniel

Street work and the perceptions of children: Perspectives from Dilla town, Southern Ethiopia

Sage Publications

Global Studies of Childhood

Year:2017

Month:03

Day:

Volume:7

Issue:1

First page:29

Last page:37

Rezaul Islam, M.

Population Shifting and Risks of Street Children in Asia: Possible Social Work Interventions

Springer-Verlag

Global Social Welfare

Year:2017

Month:3

Day:17

Since I worked on the street as a researcher in the 1980s a lot has changed. There are now many more children as unaccompanied refugees, still inside conflict zones who have been separated from families or are sole survivors, also survivors of major natural phenomena and other less often examined areas that existed to a lesser extent before. As for numbers, there have been absurd estimates that gave a single city in Brazil more than there were then likely to be in the world, the truth is we do not know. After about 40 years I have given up on the numbers game, it has nothing to do with actual lives.

because of poverty

Poverty, homelessness, community apathy & much more.