Why do some boys run away from home?

OBJECTIVE

Insufficient research has been done to look for the factors compelling children to make street, their home. The study was conducted at a Child Observation Home to which street children from all over Delhi, are brought.

METHODS

Each boy admitted during the specified 6 months period was interviewed. Chi2 and Fisher's test were applied. A total of 400 boys were studied, 9.8% of these had not run away from their homes and 89.2% were "Runaways". These two groups were compared and following factors were found associated with the "Runaway" group.

RESULT: Majority (55%) had left home between 10-12 year of age. They were more from "Joint" families. A higher percentage had literate fathers. A higher percentage had no parent earning and a higher proportion of "Not Runaways" had only the mother earning. Presence of a step parent, guardian other than the parents and intra-familial physical abuse were found associated with "Runaway" group.

CONCLUSION

The most common reason for running away was; beating by parents/relatives, followed by a desire for economic independence (28.5%). Other reasons were maltreatment by step parent/s, being both parents dead argument with parent etc. The factors emerging can be useful for identifying high-risk families with children in pre adolescent age and hence for prevention and rehabilitation.