Survival strategies of street children and their consequences: a comparative study between Kuala Lumpur city and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah / Siti Nur Fathanah Abd Hamid

Street children have been recognized as a global issue not only in the poor countries, but also in the developing countries like Malaysia. Most of street children in Malaysia reside the urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. There are many factors contributing to this issue including poverty, family problem, migration, undocumented, victims of child abuse and neglect, abandonment and many others. The existence of street children is always being associated with negative connotations such as "poor", "dirty", "problematic", "social parasites" and "small criminals". Life as street children are full with challenges and difficulties—they are exposed to high risk while on the street such as bullying, starving, serious diseases, death and many others. To stay alive, their survival strategies while on the street are essential such as friendship, working and education. Notably, survival strategies of street children are argued to be different from each area due to the different situation, context, environment and cultural practices. For this reason, this study compared the survival strategies of street children between the Kuala Lumpur city and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Qualitative method is adopted in this study through in-depth interviews (semi-structured questions and supported with observation). The findings of this study which involved 24 street children (12 street children from the city of Kuala Lumpur and 12 street children from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah) discovered that the main survival strategy of street children was "friendship", followed by "working"; and the least survival strategy recognized by street children was "education". The findings of this study also revealed that there were levels/degree of survival strategies that lead to many consequences. The levels/degrees of engaging in friendship is divided into three which were "too close to friend/s", "close to friend/s" and "distance from friend/s". Although there were several positive consequences of "too close to friend/s" such as getting protection and source of help; it also led to the a number of negative consequences which were loitering, smoking, involved in drugs, get drunk with their friends and many others. Street children who were "close to friend/s" also associated their friends as source of help and be with friends can maximize their protection. However, they were also exposed to the negative consequences including loitering, glue sniffing and fighting. "Distance from friend/s" made them at high risk and having no support while on the street. Working among street children is divided into three levels which were "hazardous/dangerous", "nonhazardous" and "parents' employment". Notably, working led to a number of negative consequences among street children, which can harm their health, exposed to diseases, being discriminated and have low educational performance. Finally, education among street children was divided into two degrees/levels which were "low involvement" and "no involvement". Majority of street children were illiterate, school dropped-out and have low knowledge; these may jeopardize their future life. Hence, this study had come out with several recommendations to urge the relevant agencies, society, community and government to effectively deal with this issue by strengthening children's rights, especially street children. Finally, the findings from in-depth interviews with key persons representing relevant agencies who deal with street children in Kuala Lumpur city and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah also validated the findings of survival strategies of street children—working was mostly recognized as survival strategies of street children mostly in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, followed by education.