COVID-19 Risks and Vulnerabilities of Street-Connected Children: A Qualitative Study in Bangladesh

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 exacerbated the plight of street-connected children. This qualitative study was conducted to elucidate child welfare service providers’ (CWSPs) experiences regarding the massive impact of COVID-19 on street-connected children in Dhaka city of Bangladesh. Ten CWSPs with direct experience of serving street-connected children during the pandemic were recruited purposively. Findings unveil that government administrative actions taken through lockdowns and restrictions disrupted the lives and livelihood of street-connected children. The pandemic situation caused job losses and restricted children’s opportunities to earn, and intensified their sufferings from hunger, homelessness, and physical and sexual abuse. The children were displaced and detached from their peer network. They were deprived of education, healthcare, social services, and treatment facilities. Despite the risks of COVID-19 and movement restrictions, CWSPs came forward to serve the children with food aid and emergency services in collaboration with a few community-based voluntary organizations. However, the services were not enough to address children’s needs and problems. Findings suggest that CWSPs should adopt strategies for community engagement and multi-stakeholder collaboration to provide better services to the street-connected children during emergencies. A mixed methods research focusing on child maltreatment could be helpful for better understanding of children’s sufferings during the pandemic.

Keywords:

• Street-connected children
• child welfare service providers (CWSPs)
• COVID-19
• lockdown
• risks
• vulnerabilities

Acknowledgement

The authors sincerely acknowledge the contributions of the child welfare service providers (CWSPs) in Dhaka city of Bangladesh, who spent their valuable time by spontaneously participating in this study. The authors also like to convey their heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for offering valuable suggestions and critical comments to improve this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/