§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) what estimate she has made of how many street children there are in the developing world; and what plans she has to provide support for the work being done in developing countries to bring street children into mainstream society to benefit from more general education and health programmes ; [72326]
1138W(2) what account her Department will take of the policy statement on promoting and protecting the rights of street children formulated by the South Asian Civil Society Forum meeting in Colombo last December when developing programmes to support Governments in South Asia combating poverty, ill health and poor education. [72167]
§ Clare ShortChildren live on the streets because of poverty in their communities. We have no specific estimate of their numbers, but street children form a proportion of the 600 million children who live in poverty and we know that some 113 six to 11-year-olds are not in school (1998 figure). Some of these will be street children. Support for children's rights to basic health care, education, nutrition, shelter, and protection from violence and abusive labour, along with work on sustainable livelihoods for their parents, is central to our effort towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
We are currently providing financial support of nearly £2 million to a number of organisations that work directly with street children. We also support many more organisations and Governments working to tackle the underlying causes of the poverty, deprivation, and social exclusion that force children on to the streets.