Children who either live with or without family, hanging out individually or in gangs in different places and surviving by begging, working in someone’s employment, robbery, or working in the sex trade.
I had just spent an entire hour following an online discussion about Bangkok street children. What I find very interesting are the varying reactions from people -- pity, resentment, ignorance, apathy, compassion, indifference...
I decided to copy some of the posts that were on that online discussion. It seems as if a few of the members of that particular discussion group have figured some stuff out about the street kids.
The original question, posted by username Taiwantroll, is as follows:
Taiwantroll
I am curious. The children I see so often selling things like roses or mints, or the beggars... are they working for the mob? Do they make a profit from what they are doing? Do they have parents? Are they Thai?
I was surprised to find that my Thai girlfriend had no idea and couldn't answer any of my questions. She seemed to think, however, that they were not Thai, at least not the children in my neighbourhood. I would just ask them but I have a feeling I will not get a straight answer.
The following are the responses to this original question. Note, their online usernames are in bold.
Citan
My mom told me that they we're unclean and we're owned by someone, who collects their profits at the end of the day. One night I was out at "The Pier" (I forgot the name of the place, but it is a big pier, and lots of people meet there and stuff, has a big statue, it is near Sanambinnam/ The Mall Ngamwongwan) with my friend, who was a very attractive young lady, and this girl kept trying to get me to buy a flower for her, and she kept shooing her away, and saying mean things to her, and made her cry... I asked why she did that, and she also told me the girl was unclean, and I should not buy flowers from her, because the money would go to bad people...
pumpkin
Difficult to say. Some are there working because their parents have told them to do so. Take the traffice light at Yommarath, the corner of the Mission Hospital...I often see the kids running around in the hot sun trying to sell garlands etc, while the mothers are in the shades nagging or bitching about whatever. Same as the indian kids that work around Kao Mun Kai pratunam at night..at 2 am there are there selling roses..and their mother is always around but she never seems to have done anything. I never understand why these parents never do the hardwork themselves.
On the other hand, there have been some news on chilren being abducted for work by mafia too...in Pattaya i think, quite a while back.
I never buy anything from these kids because I do not want to endorse the idea that child labour is ok, but I never thought of them as unclean. They are being abused by adults. Being horrible to them doesn't improve anything. And making them cry? I mean is that necessary.
Mephistophelean
Many of these children live in squalor conditions, they earning are taken by someone, and they are often abused.aging one
Some have actually been sold into this.
It's terrible.
Just two weeks ago front page news about one of those poor little street urchins. Dead.
DJ Pat
And that story read,
"the 9 year old girl, who's parents had put her to the streets because they didn't want to work, was selling flowers at the intersection for 7 nights a week"
The Not-So-Special One
These street children are forced to go out and sell flowers or other crap. Children and disabled people are favourite victims for either ruthless mob-style gangs looking to get rich without lifting a finger or lazy parents who've realised lots of people pity the children and will buy more easily from them tham from an adult.
However bad you feel, don't buy anything from them, as it will only lead to prolong their stay in hell. And hell it is, would you like to sell those garland in the toxic car exhaust fumes each day and night?
Help them and don't buy. I just wonder sometimes why the police aren't doing more to prevent this. Are they on the mob's payroll as well?
Milo
How do you suggest one helps them?
kingwilly
dont buy from them - but you can support 'proper' charities - such as Fr Joe's Duan Prateep Foundation in Klong Toey - google him - in fact he writes somewhat reguarly in the Bangkok Post....
Taiwantroll
"Don't buy from them..." Faulty logic.
I have heard that time and time again. Why not buy from them? It's gives me an opportunity to talk with them, however brief. It provides them an opportunity to speak to someone who does not hold them in low regard. Sometimes I buy them a juice or some gummi bears. Once in Lao, I bought dinner for a whole troup of street beggars.
The notion that you can eradicate an entire industry by not participating in it is idealistic crap. The industry will exist whether I buy some garlands or not.
And in the short term, if that child returns empty-handed they might get a beating. So not buying might be contributing to a child's suffering. Depends how you look at it really.
Also, those who argue that buying from a child on the streets only contributes to the problem, often make the mistaken assumption that things would be better if that industry had never existed in the first place. That is not necessarily the case. Those children might face far worse circumstances if they were not selling. And in fact, it is often the case that the existence of such industries will eventually lead to more public awareness and more proactive measures to improve conditions for children.
I say buy, buy, buy...
likewise
All very sad and true but there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it. This is one of Thailand's problems, if the justice system here would actually follow their laws all these problems could be solved! But no, they don't it's a lot easier to close the eyes and pretend it's not happening! mai pen rai is the way to go sadly enough! The rulers of this country are too busy being corrupt to get themselves re-elected. Does one really think they give a damn about kids?
Ken May
I was at a taco stand on Khao San Road last month when a street urchin took my order. When he gave me my change I noticed that it was 20 baht short. I went to his mother and made a scene - one of those confrontational modes that only farangs seem to manage well. I drove away about a dozen customers before his mother returned the correct money owed. She didn't even punish the kid. She just smiled at him like she was proud.Qwerty2
Watch out for the fake Akha kids, too, some of them will pick pockets.
My wife and I were eating dinner on the street in Pratunam several months ago and had a chance to ask a flower girl a few questions. She spoke Thai, but looked more ethnic Indian than Thai. Here's the info we got out of her: Her parents/owners/whomever buy roses cheaply in bulk. They give her some (I think about 100, which cost about 50 baht) and tell her not to come home until she has made 500 baht. She often works until 1 or 2 am.
I asked her if she went to school and she told me that she was in Anuban 2. An Anuban 2 student would be about 5 and this girl looked like she was about 8. I suspect that she actually doesn't go to school and didn't even know what grade she should be in.
Just another BOF
I used to work at a government school in Huay Kwang at the turn of the century (I love the sound of that) and I remember often seeing one of my students selling chewing gum around Siam Square late at night. She spent the next day sleeping at school.
-----
This is a difficult thing to alleviate. Buying from them means they will be on the street again tomorrow. Not buying from them could bring on punishment from their handlers. The only way to solve it is for the Police and Authorities to put a stop to it.
Taiwantroll
Well it would seem, at least in this neighborhood, that the children do not work for the mafia but for there parents.
The girl that my girlfriend and I have befriended, sells to help her family. Her mother is single, divorced from her father, and she has two brothers. Sometimes her mom comes along. They are from Nonthaburi, and come in by bus to Victory Monument each day. She doesn't work that late, usually until 9 or 10pm. Her mom buys the candies from the store. She makes less than 100Bht each night, profit. As I mentioned before, she is of Indian descent but she attends school and is not an illegal. She is also very talkative once you get to know her, though she is shy with me since her English is not good.
We took her for donuts last night.
Just goes to show, don't jump to conclusions until you know the whole truth. And before some of you suggest that she is lying, all her answers came very fast and with great detail. If she is a liar she is very good at it, and has rehearsed very well.
Unwell
until the thai government arranges some kind of social welfare for these kids; most of whom are orphans, kids of incapable parents, 'stateless' kids, the poorest of the poor...
until that day,
i'm gonna keep helping them out when i can, if i can.
http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/development-forum/12524-street-children.html
I searched for some stuff online about street children. I found a government website, titled Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children, that explains the situation in great detail. There are some facts that struck me:
About migrant children:
There are 3 basic ways in which migrant street children enter Thailand: (1) They initially come to sell their labor and later join with Thai street children (2) They come with their families who enter Thailand to work. The children who are too young to get a job or cannot find a job become street children while their parents are working (3) They are forced, lured, or willingly come to Thailand to become beggars.About Bangkok's attraction:
Many street children live in the area around Bangkok's main train station. As young as six years old, they live in makeshift shelters under nearby bridges and spend their days hanging around the train station. Lacking adult supervision and healthy role models, these orphans and runaways spend their time begging, scavenging for food, stealing, and doing drugs. Lacking defenses, they are often exploited, including sexually. As time goes on, they begin to trust no one, least of all the police.
A portion of the estimated 200,000 to 300,000 sex workers in Thailand are either underage or in involuntary servitude or debt bondage, according to a U.S. State Department report. Homeless street children are the most vulnerable, Capaldi said.
At an underpass in central Bangkok, a group of children waited for a red light to stop traffic. Rats the size of cats scuttled from the bushes, and the boys in tattered shorts and sandals bolted into the street when the cars stopped. They donned sad expressions and pressed their faces on the car windows, seeking change.
One boy, 10-year-old "Ice," said three times a month someone offers to pay him for sex. He always declines. But social workers fear the lure of money will someday change his mind. Ice and his brother sleep on the floor in his grandmother's one-room shack in a shantytown. She makes money by scavenging for scraps of metal while he begs.
In the discussion forum, username Taiwantroll hit the issue right on the nail. What should one do to help? Should one buy from the street children, or not participate at all in the hopes that they will turn towards more legitimate ways of making money?
"Riffraff, streetrat, I don't buy that. If only they'd look closer. Would they see a poor boy, nosirree. They'll find out there's so much more to me."
- Aladdin (Disney)
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