Source: The Straits Times

Brylan is 14 and Milagros, 11. The girls quit school to work for their family.

Each earns about 260 pesos (C$5) a night, which they give to their mother, a street sweeper. They make another 200 pesos in tips.

"It's hard to stay awake after you've been standing for more than an hour," says Brylan, sniffing from a plastic bag containing a lump of glue.

"We try to stay close to the club doors so we know when the customers come out."

Street kids in Manila hang around a bar

They are found not only in the Philippines but also in urban slums in India and China. They haunt the outskirts of big cities in Indonesia and other countries, sifting through garbage to earn enough for one square meal a day.

In 10 years, these children could comprise a serious crisis in Asia as a huge cohort of disaffected young adults, warned the child-focused international non-governmental organisation 'Plan' recently.

The group was founded by a British social worker in 1937 to help the world's poorest children and now helps children in 45 countries.

It has pledged to invest C$1.1 billion in Asia, with C$297 million of that sum going into education.

Speaking in Bangkok at the recent launch of a report on the status of children in Asia, Plan CEO and former United States career diplomat Tom Miller said: "One out of every 10 people in the world today is an Asian child in poverty, lacking one of the essential services we all take for granted."

"Because the problem has not been addressed, it is compounding."

In fact, they live in absolute poverty, deprived of two or more of the basic human needs of safe food and drinking water, sanitation, health, shelter, education and information.

Most live in south Asia, according to the Plan study. Indeed, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) says India alone has almost 100 million children aged five to 14 who are not in school.

Instead, they work in factories producing matches, fireworks and explosives, they cut and polish gems, stitch carpets, and stitch clothes and leather goods for export.

Indrani Singh, a commercial pilot who spends her spare time teaching street children and runs the non-governmental organisation Literacy India, told The Straits Times: "It is not as if we don't have laws for the welfare of the children. The problem is our failure to implement them.

"We have failed to execute our policies to take all our children from the streets and workplaces and send them to school. This needs more commitment by the government and the community."

Plan chief Miller points to a complex mix of factors, including cultural, gender-based and other kinds of discrimination that have contributed to the problem.

Girls suffer the most, he says, with statistics suggesting a higher mortality rate for girls and severely limited opportunities for those who survive. That problem has an even darker side in India.

The practice of deliberately aborting female foetuses because of a preference for male children is rampant even in relatively affluent states.

That has resulted in a plummeting female to male sex ratio among children in India. It fell from 945 girls to every 1,000 boys in 1991, to 927 to every 1,000 in 2001, and has declined further since. Despite laws aimed at halting such abortions, ultrasound clinics and abortion clinics flourish.

China however was singled out as having made strides in cutting down child poverty in recent years, through well-targeted policies backed by financing.

Beggar kids on the streets of India

But they point to the contrast between what you see in a gleaming city and what lies in the countryside. In a Chinese city like Xian, for example one would see people using cellphones, brand-name goods, high-rise buildings and shopping malls.

But just 20 minutes outside town, there are thatched huts, with paper instead of glass for windows.

The organisation therefore called for more child-centred decision-making by Asian governments, as well as aid agencies.

Another problem making matters worse for all children in Asia is the environment. There are water shortages, poor land ownership and usage patterns, and severe urban pollution.

"Children form a significant part of the population of developing countries in Asia, generally between 30 and 50 percent, so development policies or interventions that do not explicitly take account of the needs of children are missing their target," the Plan report says.

"Investing in the human capital of children is the most cost efficient and effective way of combating inter-generational poverty."

China was singled out as having made strides in cutting down child poverty in recent years, through well-targeted policies backed by financing. Out of a child population of 380 million, the incidence of absolute poverty there was relatively low at 13 million, though there remained geographical pockets of serious concern.

Plan regional director for Asia Michael Diamond told journalists in Bangkok that on the surface, there have been improvements in many countries.

But he points to the contrast between what you see in a gleaming city and what lies in the countryside.

In a Chinese city like Xian, for example, he said, you would see people using cellphones, brand-name goods, high-rise buildings and shopping malls.

But just 20 minutes outside town, there are thatched huts, with paper instead of glass for windows.

He called for more child-centred decision-making by Asian governments, as well as aid agencies.

He warned that, while a large section in Asia had benefited from globalisation, the gap between the growing urban middle class and the urban and rural poor was widening rather than narrowing.

The absolute number of poor children in countries like India and the Philippines has also remained high partly because of population growth over the last 40 years, he said.

The Philippine government estimates that there are around a million street children in the country and some are engaged in prostitution.

"The majority of these kids actually have families who send them to the streets to sell or to beg. Only a few have been abandoned," says Ms Victoria Juat, programme officer in Unicef's Child Protection Section.

So girls like Brylan and Milagros are on the street selling flowers instead of being in school.

Brylan, who dropped out after completing Primary 5 three years ago, dreams of returning to school. "I want to be a computer engineer someday," she says.

Milagros pipes up: "I also want to go back to school. But mother said she can't afford to send me to school this year."