Today, millions of street children live in poverty, disease and crime in many countries, especially in the teeming cities of the underdeveloped Third World. They may sometimes be living in slum shanties or makeshift boxes, their parents too poor to feed and care for them properly, or have abandoned them completely. Many of them live all their lives on the street itself, or in parks, abandoned houses and buildings, under bridges, in any available space. They survive by begging for alms, scavenging for food, depending on the charity of people, sniffing substances to stave off hunger, or resorting to theft. Many street children eventually fall victim to human trafficking, crime and drug syndicates, and child prostitution. They suffer early deaths because of disease, or, in some places, at the hands of law enforcement agents and “death squads” in the pay of local businessmen and the police to “clean up” the city.
