Educational Exclusion As A Capability Capital Nexus: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Street Children's Education in Urban Dhaka, Bangladesh

This study investigates the coexistence of high educational aspiration and systemic exclusion among street connected children in the Khamar Bari area of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Using an analytical framework that integrates Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach with Pierre Bourdieu’s Capital Theory, the research examines the mechanisms underlying educational deprivation in conditions of extreme urban vulnerability. A Sequential Explanatory mixed-methods design was implemented, comprising a survey (N=41), three in-depth case studies, and a focus group discussion (FGD). Quantitative findings reveal significant structural deficits: 78% cite economic pressure as the primary obstacle, 66% report having no family members, and 66% report no educated family members, while 83% maintain a positive view of education. The principal finding demonstrates that educational exclusion constitutes a multi-dimensional conversion failure. The immediate need for daily survival income, resulting from unmet basic functioning such as food, security, and health, prevents children from converting available educational opportunities (despite high institutional proximity) into capabilities. This failure is further compounded by persistent deficits in social and cultural capital inherited from family breakdown and extreme poverty. The study contends that current rights-based policies are insufficient, as they do not address the interconnected capability capital deficit. The research recommends urgent, multi-sectoral conditional support programs and adaptive learning environments to secure basic functioning and reconstruct the social infrastructure necessary for sustainable inclusion.