COVID-19 Aspect of Poverty: Children Living and Working on the Street

Abstract

There is a Turkish proverb commonly used for gratitude: ‘nothing so bad but it might have been worse’. Actually, how worse the situation can get for the children living and working on the street as an image of visible poverty of the cities. The children who settle in the streets, who live in the streets, who work or force to work in the streets are the ones affected by the negativeness that COVID-19 created. Their living conditions became harder and crueller. Children who live and work on the streets have not only had socio-economic problems but also educational medical problems, etc. It is a social truth that these children are the most affected disadvantaged group in the battle of pandemic. In this context, especially before and after pandemic, how the life is affected and the change that it brings is very remarkable. However, the detrimental effect on the negativity in societal terms is inevitable. In this study, children living, working, and being forced to work in the streets are defined cognitively, their status quo in the society, their form of life, their educational, medical, criminal, and family cultural relationships are described; evaluation of pandemic process’s influences on ‘the new normal’, the social change and transformation in regarding to human and child rights are discussed.

Citation

Gungor, M. (2021), "COVID-19 Aspect of Poverty: Children Living and Working on the Street", Grima, S., Sirkeci, O. and Elbeyoğlu, K. (Ed.) A New Social Street Economy: An Effect of The COVID-19 Pandemic (Contemporary Studies in Economic and Financial Analysis, Vol. 107), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 217-229. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1569-375920210000107036