Street children are a term for children experiencing homelessness, who live on the streets of a city, town or village. Street children is used as a catch all term, but covers children in a wide variety of circumstances and with a wide variety of characteristics. Street children are increasing the world over as part of the urban landscape. In Kenya prevalence of disease among street children was 467 per 1000 children. In India, the traditional approach towards care of children in difficult circumstances has been institutionalization. This practice started with the realization of the fact that there were a large number of children without parental care, vulnerable and in need of care and protection. A street child in Bangladesh is someone "for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood; and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults” [1]. Street children do not go to school; instead they sell things in the streets or do other jobs as their parents earn less money or do not work. It is estimated that there is more than 600,000 street children living in Bangladesh, 75% of them live in the nation's capital, Dhaka [2]. In a country ranked 138^th on the Human Development Index and where 50% of the population is living below the poverty line, these children represent the absolute lowest level in the social hierarchy, in the world's most densely populated nation. Nowadays the population in this country increased, and the number of street children has also increased to an estimated 4 million [3]. Street children in Dhaka city are increasing and very little known about their conditions and health status. They lead a very vulnerable life and high risk of prone to different kinds of diseases. So it is essential to know socio-demographic conditions, hygiene practice, and disease pattern of street children which may be helpful to implement any intervention related to them. This study is an attempt to explore street children.

This is a descriptive type of cross-sectional study. The study was conducted among street children who wander in Dhaka City. Data were collected from conveniently selected different areas of Dhaka City like Sadarghat, Gabtoli, Gulistan Airport, Kamlapur railway station. These areas were selected because of availability of street children. This study was conducted for a period of six months. Sample size was n=384.03. The sample size was three hundred and eighty five, for the time and economic constraints it was taken as 150. Nonprobability convenient sampling technique was applied. A semi-structured pre-tested and interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were collected by pre tested structured questionnaires and in face to face interview. Information about socio-demographic characteristics was also obtained. Disease history was taken from last six months. The respondents were selected consecutively who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. After data collection, data were sent to the researcher, which was sorted, scrutinized by the researcher himself by the selection criteria and then data were analyzed by SPSS version 16.0 program. The open ended questions were grouped and categorized. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Some respondents were incapable of understanding the importance for conducting a study. Hence, they showed deprecating attitudes toward the interviews or skip some questions. In some cases they showed non-cooperation and considered the interviews a waste of time.

Mean age was 10.55 ± 2.96 years. More than half (66.7%) of the respondents were boys followed by girls 33.3%. Table 3 reveals that about half of the respondents were day labor followed by tokai 20%, hocker 16% and others 12%. Table 4 shows that 83.8% respondents did not have any disease currently. Fever, diarrhea, skin disease, and common cold were seen among 20%-30% respondents. More than 80% respondents had good appetite. Table 5 indicates that 41.3% respondents took meat in last seven days whereas egg was taken by 75% respondents but milk was consumed by 20% study subjects. Fish and fruits were taken randomly. Table 6 shows that most of the respondents washed hand before taking food and after toilet. They bathed regularly and cut hair but did not cut nail on regular basis.

Child rag pickers in Dhaka city are increasing. In our everyday life we see them roadside, train station, launchghat, bus terminal etc but we did not know much of them. This study was an attempt to explore this scenario particularly their disease condition, dietary and hygiene practice. Mean age of the children was 10.55 ± 2.96 years. More than half (66.7%) of the respondents were boys. About half of the respondents were day labor. Guntur city study found similar characteristics [4]. About 83.8% respondents did not have any disease currently. Fever, diarrhea, skin disease, and common cold were seen among 20%-30% respondents. They lead a very vulnerable life and high risk of prone to different kinds of diseases. This descriptive type of cross-section study was conducted among purposively selected 300 child rag pickers age between 6 to 17 years. About 45% respondents had suffered from fever and 14.7% had suffered from abdominal pain during last three-month period mostly. About 7% rag-pickers reported that they were sexually abused in different times during last three months where girls were much higher than boys [5]. Necessary steps should be taken to reduce their sufferings otherwise they will become a burden for the country in future. More than 80% respondents had good appetite. Fish and fruits were taken randomly. They did not cut nail on regular basis. In Ayaya et al. study, one hundred and ninety-one children were studied in Kenya. The most common symptom was cough (28.9%) while frequent diagnosis was upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) (12.1%) followed by skin disease (50.9%) as the leading disease category [3]. The government of Kenya should provide free health care for street children in public hospitals. Our neighboring country India is facing similar problem, specially in New Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai [1]. When considering India as a whole, there are over 11 million children who earn their living off the streets in cities and rural areas [6]. It is more common for street children to be male and the average age is fourteen. Although adolescent girls are more protected by families than boys are, when girls do break the bonds they are often worse off than boys are, as they are lured into prostitution [7]. The Republic of India is the seventh-largest and second-most populated country in the world. Due to the acceleration in economic growth, an economic rift has appeared, with just over thirty-two per cent of the population living below the poverty line [8]. Owing to unemployment, increasing rural-urban migration, the attraction of city life, and a lack of political will, India has developed one of the largest child labor forces in the world. The number of street children in Pakistan is estimated to be between 1.2 million and 1.5 million [9-10], meaning that the country has one of the world's largest street children populations. Although, this number remains anecdotal since it was cited over 10 years ago. There has been no head-count or a mapping study of street children in Pakistan except couple of large metropolitan cities such as Karachi and Lahore. These studies were also geographically and scope-wise limited. These studies show that the numbers may be much higher now after the increasing poverty, people's displacement after the natural disasters, and war on terrorism in Pakistan. Most recently, Social Welfare Department of Sindh has conducted a mapping study of street children in Karachi. Past efforts have been initiated by UNICEF and other NGOs to assist children in need through various programs and rehabilitation centres however, the situation remains as a prominent socio-economic issue in Pakistan during the 21^st century. The research finds that street children in Iran come from crowded, low-income families; many of them were rural–urban migrants and Afghans with families who immigrated to Iran; most of their parents had a lower than high school education and many of their fathers were unemployed or had low-income jobs; the majority of these children were unskilled workers who would work many hours of the day for negligible incomes. They conclude that low socioeconomic status was prevalent among the street children's families in Iran and seems to be an important factor in the street-connectedness of the children [11].

It is concluded from the study that about 83.8% respondents did not have any disease currently. Fever, diarrhea, skin disease and common cold were seen among 20%-30% respondents. More than 80% respondents had good appetite. They did not cut nail on regular basis. Street children suffered those diseases which were preventable.