Assesment Of The Effectiveness Of Child Development Policy On Protection Of Street Children In Urban Areas: A Case Study Of Dodoma Urban

ABSTRACT

Despite having Child Development Policy, the number of street children has been rapidly increasing in Tanzania cities. In Dodoma children and adolescents live and work on the streets. Many of these children are denied their basic rights like education, health care and protection from abuse and exploitation. This research assessed the effectiveness of the Child Development Policy towards protection of street children in Dodoma Municipality. The review of the literature conducted explains and highlights the meaning of child, street children and driving forces for their occurrence, types and hazards they face when living on street. Policy and child protection policy have been also explained. Literature also has shown global and country’s strategies being formulated sometimes implemented in protecting children. Moreover challenges encountering children living in streets. The field data was collected through semi-structured interview and in-depth interview guides to find the results. The study found out that there were limitations towards effective implementation of the policy on children protection which included lack of enough resources and policy legal drawbacks which were full of contradiction towards children development rights. It was recommended that government should take purposive action to improve economic status of citizens in order to enable households meet their basic needs which in turn will reduce family conflicts and avoid the occurrences of street children. Policy makers must also formulate applicable policies that will eliminate the exposed difficulties and societal hazards facing children mostly street children in Tanzania. .