Child vulnerability or agency? Exploring the experiences of children with disabilities in street beggary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The involvements of children with disabilities (CWDs) in street beggary is an under-studied phenomenon and little-understood due to the complex nature of the activity. CWDs who are begging for alms in the streets are often approached as part of the ordinary street working street children. They are not in schools, care or protection schemas and/or out of the policy web in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Employing a qualitative methodology of exploration, this paper considers both the narratives of child agency and vulnerability of CWDs involved in beggary in the streets of Addis Ababa. The presentation of these discourses results in a broader framework of understanding the practices of begging by CWDs in Addis. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes the child rights pillars expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). The research has also generated practical evidence that the notion of agency needs re-thinking and dismantling. These existing discourses have not adequately analyzed the experiences of CWDs with begging. This study disproves the agency assertion in beggary by CWDs and highlights the multiple child rights abuses involved in the activity. The children themselves perceive the activity as the last resort. In the words of participant child; ‘‘there is nowhere for me to go and to do outside of the streets and begging; the money helps me to buy food and a place to sleep’’ (4th participant child with physical disabilities due to polio, male, age 14). Further evidences throughout the study also indicated that, it is child rights violation, yet ignored in intervention policies and programs. A deeper understanding of the CWDs involvement in beggary is vital to move towards more effective and rights-based interventions. For this end, the paper suggests that this also applies to relevant offices in child protection in Addis Ababa’s city administration. These offices would do well to apply a child rights-based approach to supporting the rights of CWDs that involve in beggary.