Paragraph: A Street Child

The street boy is he who moves along the roads and has no definite place or house to live in. They move on streets, eat the leftover from the roadside dustbins and sleep on footpaths. The street is their home. So they are called street boy. Some of them earn their livelihood by working as a coolie. Some live by serving as a helpmate in a house, some by doing some odd business. The street boy has no parents. They have been left by their parents because most of them have illegal birth. When they gradually grow up, they get themselves involved into illegal activities. Finding no other alternative, they take shelter on the streets. These boys are deprived of many rights of a citizen. They are even destitute of fundamental needs of life. They cannot go to schools. They cannot eat a square meal, let alone medical treatment. Thus they remain underprivileged.

Or,

The poor and homeless children who live by doing odd jobs and pass their days and nights on streets are street children. The life of these waifs and strays is really miserable. We find them here and there on town and city streets in shabby torn clothes. These street urchins usually either are orphans or abandoned by their parents. They do not have any relatives or any definite means of livelihood. They earn their livelihood by doing whatever work they get such collecting papers, peddling flowers, begging, working at a footpath tea stall and so on. The only objective and challenge of life of these unlucky children are just to keep their heads above water. They generally sleep on the pavements of streets, on the railway platforms, under trees or passenger sheds or anywhere they find available. They drench in rain and burn in the sun. These underprivileged and poor children are deprived of the basic needs of life. Government and the civil society should extend helping their hands so as to ensure them a better life.

Word-note: odd jobs – irregular work – এটা-সেটা/ অনিয়মিত কাজ, waifs and strays – homeless and abandoned children – গৃহহীন ও পরিত্যক্ত শিশু, miserable – sad/ unhappy – শোচনীয়, street urchins – street children – টোকাই/ পথশিশু, underprivileged – disadvantaged – সুবিধাবঞ্চিত, abandoned – deserted – পরিত্যক্ত।

Or,

My name is Amerigo. I am 13 years old and I live on the street, alone. My mother, who is separated from my father, doesn’t want me. She told me to go away. Now she is married to another man. My father lives very far away. I want to go to him, but he won’t take me either. I begged him to send me some money so that I could buy a bus ticket. I am still waiting. He hasn’t answered. The streets are now my home. Sometimes I find work. I used to collect trash and sell it to a vendor. I stopped doing that after I had a serious infection and a doctor told me to stay away from the trash dump. Once I worked for an ice cream shop owner and sold ice- cream on the beach. But I got no money in return. The owner of the shop gave me something to eat, and let me sleep in his hut at night. The work was difficult and painful. The ice-cream box is quite heavy when it is full. I had to walk for hours, offering my ice cream to whoever wanted to buy. There were days when I could not even sell one ice cream. In a way, I am lucky because I am alive. My friends who work sorting rubbish in dumps often suffer from serious diseases. One of them was recently killed after he fell into a hole that opened up in the pile of trash. Many of us work for 10 to 12 hours and get so little in return that we can’t even buy food. Shoe-shining is very popular among the street kids. A few of my friends also work in factories and workshops. A boy I know lost one of his eyes after a piece of hot glass flew into his eye at the glass factory where he worked. The owner refused to pay for medical help and fired him. For me, like all the other children on the street, it is very hard. I am always hungry, and I don’t know where I will sleep the next night. I would like to live in my own home and sleep there in peace. The nights are very cold in the winter. You can die of cold in the street.