Children of the city: a study of street children in Kathmandu, their social practices and territoriality

Abstract

There are as many reasons for being on the street as there are street children. Mutual for all the urchins on the streets of Kathmandu is the city’s significance in their lives. The children no longer depend on their family to provide their fundamental needs. The city has become their replacement of a variety of functions. It is therefore likely to presume that there is a special relationship between the street children and the city. Within Kathmandu the street children choose to stay in different places. Each place offers several practices in order to maintain daily life. The gangs socialize new street children into the practices in the place, including the territorial practices. Through their daily life and daily routines the street children appropriate place. The street children's territorial expressions depend on context and who they are interacting with. They exclude other street children from their place in order to defend their resources. The street children are by representatives from mainstream society considered to be abject and on the margin of society. Ironically the mainstream society's fear of abjection and dirt partly empower the street children to appropriate places.

La vida en la calle es un fenómeno social que afecta a muchas personas, pero cuando se trata de niños, el fenómeno se recrudece de forma espectacular, ya que puede llegar a afectar de forma definitiva los planes de futuro y las expectativas que tanto el niño como su familia poseen. Los niños de la calle dejan de depender afectiva y económicamente de sus familiares, al tiempo que aprenden el valor del territorio como espacio de socialización, supervivencia y de la calle como hogar.