Urban Survival at Risk: Environmental and Socio-Economic Pressures on Street Children in Delhi

Abstract

This paper examines how street children in Delhi negotiate survival under the combined weight of environmental hazards and socio‑economic marginalisation. Rather than treating “street children” as an isolated or deviant category, the study situates their lives within broader processes of rural distress, migration, informal labour, and speculative urbanisation. Drawing on secondary research, NGO studies, legal frameworks, and urban/environmental reports, the paper analyses how poverty, family breakdown, caste and community hierarchies, and exploitative informal work push children into public spaces, while Delhi’s toxic air, extreme heat and cold, unsafe shelter, poor sanitation, and hazardous built environments amplify their vulnerability. Using concepts of urban marginality, structural violence, social exclusion, and everyday risk, it argues that street children experience a dense web of overlapping harms that are structurally produced rather than individually chosen. The paper also evaluates the state’s legal and policy response—juvenile justice, child protection schemes, shelters, and education rights—and the vital but constrained role of NGOs in providing contact points and partial safety nets. It concludes that meaningful change requires integrating urban planning, environmental regulation, and child protection, and recognising street children as rights‑bearing citizens whose bodies currently absorb the hidden costs of Delhi’s development.