Human Trafficking in [India] [other countries]Street Children in [India Child Prostitution in [India] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first ten years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2009
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** More kids flee abuse than poverty Contrary to popular myth, more
children leave home due to a disturbed domestic environment than abject poverty,
according to a report from the Ahmedabad Study
Action Group (ASAG) and the Gujarat Institute of Development Research
(GIDR). The study ranks familial harassment as the top reason behind
children running away from home. On the streets where they live Delhi’s streetchildren have set up an alternative forum for themselves. They meet, discuss problems, and even publish their own newspaper. There are 400,000 streetchildren in Delhi. The capital’s streets and roads are their workplace. For 100,000 of these children, the streets double as home. They have nowhere else to go. Streetchildren work as rag-pickers, in tea-stalls and dhabhas (roadside eateries), as shoeshine boys or vendors. But street life can be unpleasant and risky. They face physical abuse, the callousness of policemen, are vulnerable to drugs and to health insecurities. Police Abuse And Killings Of Street Children In India Indian street children are routinely detained illegally, beaten and tortured and sometimes killed by police. Several factors contribute to this phenomenon: police perceptions of street children, widespread corruption and a culture of police violence, the inadequacy and non-implementation of legal safeguards, and the level of impunity that law enforcement officials enjoy. HARSH NECESSITIES - Abuse often drives boys from
their homes, who flee their families to escape
intolerable abuse. These are acts of incredible courage for children so young,
echoed and repeated in the lives of tens of thousands of street children who
decide at very young ages to bravely escape violence and abuse in their homes
— alcoholic fathers, physical and sexual violence — by fending for
themselves, at whatever cost. But we also have children who were lost or
abandoned by their families at such a young age that they do not recall their
origins. The streets are the only home that they remember. NO OTHER HOME - Some are also simply born to
the streets. In Chennai, in particular, we encountered several families which
had lived for several generations on the same piece of pavement. Their great
grandparents came to the city, sometimes 80 years earlier or longer, and the
patriarchs colonised gradually “their” part of the
pavement. New generations were born, one following the next, and they all
grew up in the same stretch of pavement. This was the only home that the
large extended family now knew. Mohan, a street boy in Chennai, said,
“Homelessness is not a new thing for me. I was born into streets, and it was
here that I was brought up.” He is convinced that they will be forced to
return to the streets. Likewise, Mythili is another
of “homeless lineage”. When she was a child, her father was irresponsible, “a
drunkard, he never cared for us”, she recounts, and her mother fed them by
selling food cooked by her on the pavements to other homeless people. ***
ARCHIVES *** CHILDLINE
- Toll Free Call 1098 - Night & Day CHILDLINE reaches out to all children in
need of care and protection such as: street children, child labourers, children who have been abused, child victims
of flesh trade, differently-abled children, child
addicts, children in conflict with the law, children in institutions,
mentally challenged children, HIV/AIDs infected
children, children affected by conflict and disaster, child political
refugees, children whose families are in crises. Delhi Govt. Started the toll free 'Youth Phone service’ 1-800-11-6888 The Government of Delhi running
the 'youth' helpline named Yuva Phone line in
Delhi. The counsellors are available round the
clock on toll free no 1800116888. The
helpline is specially for students. 24-hour
children's helpdesk at CMBT The Indian Council for Child
Welfare (ICCW) and Childline has set up a 24-hour
helpdesk for children in the Chennai Mofussil Bus
Terminus (CMBT) complex. "Since
last April, we have rescued about 100 children from the CMBT. Some have run
away from home, while others are being brought to work in the city,"
said S. A. Jayamary, Street Children Project
Officer, ICCW, Tamil Nadu. The helpdesk, inaugurated on Wednesday,
seeks to strengthen the rescue efforts at the point of the children's entry
into the city. Helplines for children are 1098 and 26260097. Website
to track missing children launched Anyone who has lost their child
can post a message on this website and a search will be set in motion
simultaneously in 40 cities in the country.
Launched by Don Bosco National Forum for
Youth at Risk in association with UNICEF, www.missingchildsearch.net will be closely watched and
monitored by child welfare organisations in all
major cities in the country and a search will be generated immediately. The
Don Bosco National Forum for Youth at Risk is a
major partner of Childline India Foundation and
extends service to hundreds of children who are victims of war, conflict,
natural calamities, sexual exploitation, trafficking and HIV/AIDS. They also
take care of street and working children. National Center For Missing Children India - National Center For Missing Children (NCMC) is a non-political, non-profit making and a non-governmental organization offering the services free of charge. Video Playlists for India - There are an increasing number of street children videos now available that constitute a supplementary source of information for researchers, especially for those who may not have experienced the reality of street children. [Playlist developed by Brian Horne of almudo.com & streetkidnews.blogsome.com] UNICEF - The Big Picture U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs [2032] Children work on the streets
doing odd jobs, as rag dealers, shoe shiners and vendors. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2004 [76] The Committee welcomes the
existence of the Integrated Program for Street Children but remains concerned
at the growing number of street children in the State party, due notably to
the structural situation of the State party as well as to the lack of
proactive policies and programs of prevention and for the support of the
family. www.hindu.com/mag/2009/04/19/stories/2009041950150300.htm
SACRIFICING EVERYTHING ELSE - If they still manage to eat
nutritious food, it is to the sacrifice of almost everything else. In Patna, we met Deepak studying under a street light. He is
the 10-year-old son of a rickshaw-puller, who lives with his father on the
pavement. His father wanted him to become a “sahib”, and therefore brought
him to study in a school in the city, instead of leaving him in his village
with his mother. He is a caring father, who spends a great deal of what he
earns to feed his son well. He buys for him every night a packet of biscuits
for three rupees. This is his breakfast the next morning. Later the boy eats roti with vegetables bought from a roadside hotel, and a
small cup of milk. Ganesh, Deepak’s father says,
“Even if I don’t eat, I buy a cup of milk for my Deepak everyday.” In school,
there is khichri or gruel in the State financed
midday meal. Ganesh buys an egg for Deepak once in
few days. Indian
street urchin bank weathers global crisis www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/features/article_1465749.php/Indian_street_urchin_bank_weathers_global_crisis__Feature__
Bank manager Sudhir
has never heard of credit derivates and has no clue about investment funds. He
is just about capable of doing basic arithmetic and calculating interest
rates. But while his counterparts in posh Western office
towers worry about gaping holes in their balance sheets, the 13-year-old's
business is going strong. Still, the bank's staff and
customers are far from free of fear of losing their livelihoods. They are
street children in India's capital, New Delhi. www.hardnewsmedia.com/2009/03/2714 An important aspect of street life
is that most of these kids are in the dawn of puberty. For them, the mix of testosteronic rush and freedom is the gateway to all
kinds of ‘experiments'. Very early in life, these kids develop a serious
dependence on drugs. It is whiteners and glues for the fattoos
(who are beginners, usually aged between 8 to 10 years) while the dadas (or pros, aged 12 to 16 years) do ganja (marijuana)
and charas. "A street kid, on an average,
earns about Rs 70-80 a day. Out of this, Rs 30 goes in procuring drugs. One may not get food to
eat, but a day without drugs is impossible. Drug peddlers and addas operate openly in the bylanes
of Paharganj and Jama Masjid right under the nose of the police," says Javed. Besides drugs, sex is rampant.
Young boys and girls become intimate after facing struggles together and fall
in love. This fondness usually leads to sexual encounters among children.
Homosexuality is common, and it is the younger kids of the lot who end up
being exploited by their gang leaders, pimps, local goons and cops.
"Usually, the kids indulge in unprotected intercourse, which leaves them
vulnerable to all kinds of sexually transmitted diseases. Pregnancies in
adolescent girls are routine. They either deliver the babies and run or lose
their life in the process," says Shekhar. Street children usually live in
groups, and operate as one unit in their areas. At the New Delhi railway
station, territories are specifically divided among numerous gangs, with each
gang ‘owning' one platform. Every group consists of 10-14 members, and the
eldest of the lot (and the strongest) is the undisputed leader. Boundaries
are meant to be respected, and no trespassing is tolerated. Fights break out
often, especially over food and money. Still, in the midst of the hardships,
friendship blooms. No street kid eats alone. Food is shared between all
members of the group, even if it means sharing a single loaf of bread among
eight of them. Anil recounts, "Once, one of my friends told us that
there was a wedding near Ajmeri Gate. So we all
quietly gate-crashed and gorged on chicken and biryani.
When the guards came, we all grabbed whatever was around and managed to bring
back some food for the others too." Save
the Children in India CEO Tells the Truth About "Slumdog
Millionaire" and Child Poverty www.savethechildren.org/newsroom/2009/slumdog-millionaire-india.html
Q. Save
the Children is active in Delhi, the nation's capital. How many children live
in poverty in that city? A. It's hard to have a precise
figure but thousands of children live in slums that lack the most basic of
amenities such as drainage, water supply, sanitation. And there is no
infrastructure worth the name. After Slumdog
Millionaire there has been much talk in the Western media about the life
of children living in slums in Mumbai but one cannot ignore the reality
elsewhere in the country: Millions of children across towns and cities in
India have no access to education and health care and live in deplorable
conditions in slums. Squalor's children honour slum
gods www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25096633-15803,00.html One of the main reservations this
young audience has about the film's accuracy concerns its depiction of the
gang master who rounds up children to set them begging and mutilates them to
make a bigger profit. "It doesn't happen like
that," says Vipin, who claims to be 14.
"Most of the beggars stay with their families. Their mothers and fathers
are in charge." The children say that nobody in
their neighbourhood has been mutilated
deliberately, similar to the fictional youngster who isblinded
in Slumdog, but they believe thatsuch
atrocities do happen elsewhere inMumbai. Among Chowpatty's
child beggars, the physical scars are more subtle but no less invidious than
those depicted in the film: the small babies who are carried alongside busy
roads by young girl beggars (a practice alluded to in Slumdog)
quickly develop acute respiratory problems and many are malnourished.
Ailments such as scabies, tuberculosis and rickets are common. Health workers
who deal with street families regularly see babies whose skulls have not
formed properly because of calcium deficiencies. Virtually everyone in the audience
has been chased and beaten by the police, the scenario that forms the
backdrop to the film's opening credits. Asked if they find the film
insulting, the children reply with a bemused "no". It shows real
things, they reiterate: poverty, prostitution, murder, theft, blackmail,
religious violence, the exploitation of the weak. It's good for outsiders to
see how they exist. Surviving
on a little luck and lots of street smarts www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-fg-india-slumdog21-2009feb21,0,1071590.story
CAMARADERIE - Sahni
joined three other homeless boys, sleeping under a stairway on Platform 12 or
on the roof of a kiosk on Platform 5 as streams of people rushed past to
their families, weddings, business meetings. Despite
occasional bouts of homesickness, he felt great freedom in living on the
street. "It was fun," he
said with a laugh. "Really fun."
The four boys didn't pool what they earned scavenging, selling the
items at dingy recycling stalls near the station. But working in a pack
prevented other ragpickers from muscling in on
their turf. On a good day he made $6. But $2 was more typical. Some of their best hauls came from the
long-distance trains arriving on Platform 1, which had better-quality refuse.
They'd scoop up anything of value, including the railroad's metal trays,
before cleaners or railway police chased them away. Twice Sahni
was badly beaten by police, who tended to catch the slow, weak and
inexperienced. After that he was more vigilant. Love
and longing on the streets www.hindu.com/mag/2009/02/08/stories/2009020850100300.htm
LASTING RELATIONSHIPS - For those without a family —
either in the village or on the streets — new bonds often grow on the streets
between strangers, which may prove closer and more loyal than many ties of
blood. As many as a quarter of the homeless people we met said they shared
their life on the streets with adopted relatives. I recall a street boy who adopted
a disabled old man as his grandfather: he would carry him long distance on
his back, and for years save from his own earnings in rag-picking for food,
medicines and even the old man’s addictions. A mentally ill woman occupied the
same space on the pavement outside New Delhi railway station for years, but
would eat only if one particular street boy would bring her food, and the
boy, himself less than 10 years old, made it a point to share his earnings
buying food for her everyday. SHARING TO SURVIVE - Street boys, cut off from their
families in their village and alone in the city, tend to live in gangs,
sharing everything — food, clothes, intoxicants, sleeping under the same
sheet — teaching each other trades like rag-picking and recycling drinking
water bottles, protecting each other from street violence and the police, and
feeding each other in sickness. Cops
are villains who make our lives miserable: Street children www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090082417 Each one them said that policemen
are here to harass them, and that they are not saviours
rather villains who make their lives miserable. Eight-year-old Kanchan,
who begs near one of the temples in the locality and earns Rs 50-150 a day, was beaten up by the police four months
ago. The stories of these street
children find resonance with the brutal beating of a the
girl in Etawah on Tuesday. "One policeman gave me Rs 100 and told me to come with him. I refused as I knew
that his intentions were bad," said Suman, a
street kid. Slumdog-type tales of hope in Delhi too timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi/Slumdog-type_tales_of_hope_in_Delhi_too/articleshow/4034334.cms
The triumph of human spirit that has
made `Slumdog Millionaire' speak in a universal
language to a global audience is not just a celluloid fantasy. Even as you
read this and the film gathers critical and popular acclaim, many people are
trying to claw their way up from grinding poverty to give themselves
an identity. There's Vicky Roy, 21 a one-time ragpicker who is now an accomplished photographer wowing
international audiences. Next month, Vicky will be flying to New York for a
six-month photo assignment, recording the reconstruction of the World Trade
Center. He will also study at the Visual Arts Institute in that city. Then, there's Sanjay Malhotra, 25, who has gone from being a street bully
outside the Sai Baba Temple on Lodhi
Road to an activist working for rehabilitating street children. In fact, he
identifies with the character of Salim in the film.
Similary, 18-year-old Rani
who sold knick-knacks at the Kalkaji Temple was
saved from marriage with a 28-year-old man at the age of 14. Today, she leads
a 5,000-strong group of street children. Just two days back, she got an award
for her endeavour as part of Clean India campaign
in Hyderabad. Plastic
banned, street kids hit bull’s eye with jute bags www.expressindia.com/latest-news/plastic-banned-street-kids-hit-bulls-eye-with-jute-bags/415528/
In 2004, a group of street
children and ragpickers got together to make bags
from scrap cloth and jute. Now, following a ban on plastic bags, the jute
bags made by their organisation Lakhshya
Badhte Kadam might just
have hit the bull’s eye. Ramesh, from the organisation,
says the first orders have begun trickling in. “We have received requests to
make cheap jute bags and newspaper bags for shopkeepers in Hauz Khas and Janpath,” he says. “We employ young adults, who may have
run away from home, and economically deprived women. www.hindu.com/mag/2009/01/25/stories/2009012550090300.htm
MERE IMPEDIMENTS? - The most recent skirmish in
this sporadic warfare is a recent notification by the Delhi Traffic Police
under the Motor Vehicles Act, which slaps fines of Rs.
1,000 on those who give alms to people begging at traffic lights. Beggars are
therefore seen not as a spectacular human tragedy but an impediment to
traffic. This view is endorsed by courts. PREJUDICED PERCEPTIONS - The notion that begging is a
crime derives not just from fears of begging mafias, but also from the
conviction that begging is the first resort of the lazy poor. It assumes that
most homeless people beg as a matter of choice. But as a recent study by
PUCL-CSDS in Delhi found, only nine per cent homeless adults beg. Remarkably,
we have found this ratio to apply even to street children, who prefer work —
picking rags, serving tea in eateries or even vocations on the dark side of
the law — to begging, … Slumdog Millionaire: Meet the real Mumbai street urchins www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/4280812/Slumdog-Millionaire-Meet-the-real-Mumbai-street-urchins.html Mohammed says he earns good money
at Victoria Terminus station, where he works with a gang of 12 children, each
blocking 18 seats on several trains – forcing commuters to pay to sit down –
and some making up to £6 a day. "We can make good money if we work
hard," he says. But it's
dangerous work. He has seen knife-fights between gangs, paedophiles
preying on the younger, weaker boys, and gangsters offering drugs – heroin,
cannabis and solvents – to lure children into begging. According to Mohammed, violence is a way
of life, and he and his gang are often the aggressors. Occasionally, when
passengers refuse to pay his charge, he uses his fists to force them.
"If they don't pay, we fight, we beat them up, but it only happens once
a week. Passengers know they have to pay. Fourteen-year-old Rahul left his family's smallholding three years ago
after he beat up a boy at school. He has an angelic face, but it's grubby and
his SpongeBob SquarePants
T-shirt is even dirtier. He lives on platform 15, where he began by begging,
then graduated to collecting plastic bottles, before joining Mohammed in the
seat‑blocking scam. "It
was difficult at first because of other boys. They took drugs and beat me up
and threatened me with knives," he says. He makes only 50 rupees a day
(60p) because he is smaller than the others and cannot block as many seats.
"I spend my money on dahl and some vegetables.
There's no money for fun. We do have some freedom,
we can go around and see movies." But he wants to go back to his village
one day, where he wants to return to farming. He misses his family. Street
beggar to star striker, Raja is India's football hope www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/04/raja-chinnaswamy-india-football-star
Hoping their luck would change,
the boy and his father headed for the town of Thrissur
in Kerala, but quickly found themselves penniless
and on the streets. With his father too ill to work, Raja turned to begging. Some of the other street children
spotted him begging at the station. They told the gullible six-year-old they
could get him a job and one for his father. Instead they took him to meet the
boss of the local begging mafia, a man also called Chinnaswamy,
behind a row of shops. The man threatened him and warned him against trying
to escape. "He said I had to give him
100 rupees a day or he would kill my father," Raja said. If he tried to
escape, he was told, the other children would inform on him. One day Raja failed
to hit his target. His father was sick with a fever and the boy needed to
care for him. "In the evening I went
begging and went to see Chinnaswamy to give him the
50 rupees I had made. He tied me to a stove and hit me with an iron
rod," he said. Chinnaswamy had gathered the
other children round to watch, to make sure that they learned the lesson. The
rod was heated on the stove until it was red hot. Raja rolls down his sock to
show the scars. There is another scar to the left of one eye from where he was
burned with a cigarette. www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/4115/the_god_of_small_children
India has the largest population
of street children in the world. At least eighteen million children live or
work on the streets of urban India, laboring as porters at bus or railway
terminals; as mechanics in informal auto-repair shops; as vendors of food,
tea, or handmade articles; as street tailors; or as rag pickers, picking
through heaps of garbage and selling usable materials to local buyers. HOW DO THEY END UP ON THE STREETS? - Basically it is the need for
survival. These children come from very poor, violent and broken homes. There
are many kids who have been literally abandoned by their parents/relatives or
choose to leave home due to constant abuse such as physical, mental and
sexual exploitation. Their tolerance level breaks at some point, leading to
the drastic decision of running away.
Those who run away from home are either those who wanted to study and
work but were not allowed to, or they ran away from remote villages to
experience the perceived excitement of city life. Such children are abducted
and pushed into begging. Some are forced into the street by their parents,
when the parents are unable to feed and nourish them. An UNICEF study found that almost
40,000 children die every day in developing countries, 25% of which are in
India. Studies indicate that the street
children in India suffer from various chronic diseases and malnourishment.
Being constantly exposed to dirt, smoke and other environmental hazards,
their health condition is poor. Many suffer from serious diseases like TB,
leprosy, typhoid, malaria, jaundice and liver/kidney
disorders. There are cases of scabies, gangrene, broken limbs and epilepsy.
Fatal diseases like HIV & AIDS is also spreading widely among them due to
high incidence of sexual abuse and exploitation. A large number have genital
lesions and suggestions of secondary syphilis. All these children have little
or no family support. Street
children a ‘security threat’ at rly station www.expressindia.com/latest-news/street-children-a-security-threat-at-rly-station/393396/
Officials said from time to time
they have taken up the issue with the Government Railway Police (GRP), but
the situation hadn’t changed one bit. They keep coming on the station
premises, roam all over the place, sleep anywhere they want, quarrel among
themselves and even steal passenger luggage and parcels arriving from other
cities. Their number is around 50. “We want these kids out. They are a
nuisance and a security threat,” said Divisional Railway Manager D K Jain.
The biggest danger, said Jain, was that these youth can be bought over
easily. “Many of them are addicted to
drugs. Some of them beg. So you cannot deny the possibility that these
children will be used by miscreants to create trouble,” Jain said. The Railway is also hassled by thefts of
parcels. “In the night, you will find them sleeping on the parcels. They
steal items from these parcels by using razors or knives. We have to
compensate commuters for the loss,” said Y K Singh of Central Railway. In
2007, 13 thefts of parcels were reported while this year the number has risen
to 15. www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/tswi-081003-bank
Street children running a bank for
other street children. The idea might sound incongruous, but over 8,000
street children around the world are saving some of their meager earnings to
build a better life. TREASURE CHEST - In Delhi alone, 2000 street
children have accounts in the 12 Khazana branches
around the city. Most of these "branches" are located in make-shift
posts at railway stations and crowded marketplaces... basically, anywhere
where street children hang out. www.hindu.com/mag/2008/10/05/stories/2008100550060300.htm
A child was talking of how he lost
his home and ended up on the streets. He was travelling
with his parents in a crowded train when he was very young. He got off the
compartment at a station, and the train left with his mother and father. He
never found his parents again. For most of his childhood years, he grew up on
railway platforms with other homeless children as his only family, earning
his food through selling water bottles or picking rags, battling sexual abuse
and police batons, seeking solace in drugs and the comradeship of his street
friends. www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/mumbaiterrorstrike/Story.aspx?ID=NEWEN20080065423&type=News Without them Delhi's serial blasts
could have been a lot worse. Two ragpickers who
found two live bombs in dustbins at Children's Park at India Gate and near
Regal Cinema in Connaught Place and alerted the
police are getting Rs 50,000 each as a reward. A 12-year-old baloon
seller and two young rag-pickers are the capital's latest heroes while one of
the boys is helping the police narrow down on the men who may have carried
out one of the blasts, the other two prevented two bombs from exploding by
alerting the police in time. However, NGOs say that this is a
bitter irony as the capital's 1 lakh street
children are often at the receiving end of the law. Connaught Place,
the heart of Delhi, also home to thousands of street-children who are its
eyes and ears but go unnoticed, unheard.
It's been a long walk for Javed and Sunil,
both in their teens, from broken families one from Bareily
the other from Madhya Pradesh. A year
ago, they ran away from their homes and came to Delhi looking for work. But
all they managed to do is this risky business especially after live bombs
were found in dustbins on Saturday.
"We are scared as we pick garbage and especially from dustbins it
could be bomb and something may happen but what to do, it's about survival,"
said Mohammad Javed, ragpicker. The two walk over five kilometers each day,
looking for stuff that can be sold to scrap dealers, 40-50 rupees is all they
earn, life on the streets is not easy. The former street kid who got his life back in focus www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/News/Article.aspx?id=832982 Because of problems at school, he
fled his West Bengal home at the age of 11 and sought shelter on the streets
of New Delhi. “I had many educational
problems. I was really bad at studying and I had been bunking school for a
month. When the school sent a letter to my parents, I knew I had to take a
chance and run away, because I was so afraid of my father and I knew he would
beat me.” He left home with 20 rupees
in his pocket and ended up living with hundreds of other street children at
the New Delhi railway station. He
collected empty plastic bottles and sold them to buy food. “Life was hard. During the evenings, I
would try to sleep in a train, but sometimes police would come and beat us up
for being on the train.” Every sunrise
has a sunset: Lives on the streets india.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=139154 CHILDREN
CUT SHORT: TREATMENT OF STREET CHILDREN - Street children in India are a soft target as they are
young, poor and ignorant about their rights. The condition of these homeless
children often leads to them resorting to petty theft, robberies, drug
trafficking, prostitution, murders and other criminal activities. A level of fear and intimidation is created
in their minds because of the behaviour of the
police. Police often take money from
these children and in case the children fail to pay they are beaten up like
criminals and given third degree treatment. In some cases it has also led to
mental disbalance and even deaths. MAJOR
PROBLEM THEY FACE: AIDS
- One of the major problems the children face is AIDS. The street children at the railway stations
are worst affected and 35 per cent of them have Tuberculosis, the first
symptom of AIDS. More than five million children on Indian streets are HIV
positive. Of these, girls are the
worst affected. They are raped, taken away by touts and sold in brothels. Not
a single girl at the New Delhi railway station has been spared. In 1997, the Inter Press News Service wrote
an article stating that the street children in India are most vulnerable to
AIDS. The article brought to the fore the irony of one such girl among
millions. Uma (name changed) a nine-year old girl
was raped by a gang of homeless boys at the New Delhi railway station, where
she also lived. The same happened over and over again. This led to the poor
child delivering a still born baby Living
off the city's mean streets www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1179640 According to the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, The fate of a girl is very
different from that of a boy on the street. "The average girl arriving
in the city will last about 15 minutes before being approached by a person
posing as a friendly stranger offering help," says Valerie Tripp of an
NGO Saathi. "More often than not, these
friendly strangers are agents who whisk away the unsuspecting girl to a
brothel." As for the boys, the railway
platform is their permanent home. "They start with begging and selling
knick-knacks, and when they get no money, they turn to crime," says Kasbe. "In many cases these children are picked by
criminals to run errands." Kasbe says these street children have a
network of their own. "Most children who have been in the city for 15
days know where they can find free food," he says. The children form
groups and head towards temples or shelters where food is distributed free,
he says. They also know that they can find work in places like small hotels
and shops. www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1179421 Even before the train comes to a
halt, what one sees is a mad scramble of young lads, as they leap into the
compartments, dodging passengers to collect leftover food. It's with a sense
of achievement that they emerge victoriously with packets of half eaten kurkure, dahi cups, mineral
water, omelettes, Appy
Fizz etc. These kids who many Mumbaikars shun, or simply take for granted as being part
of the urbanscape, earn about Rs50 to 60 a day.
Some sell newspapers, some pick up plastic litter to sell to the local bangarwalla,
others make their money carrying luggage and doing odd jobs. Newspaper-vending, the most predominant
occupation, also helps the ones who can read, know about the happenings in
the city. It also gives the kids information about the latest film releases.
So it's no surprise to hear the titles Hancock and Jane Tu
being mentioned. The kids catch up on the films at their favourite
cinemas, namely Maratha Mandir and Gaiety. Coming from diverse parts of the country -
Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and the interior of Maharashtra
- these kids live life on their own terms; enjoying their life away from home
as much as they can. Flintoff, an 18-year-old boy from Madgaon came to Mumbai at the age of nine to become a
film hero. But now, he says philosophically, "Everyone comes here to
become a hero but ends up being a villain." He ran away from home to
escape a drunkard for a father, and has since been living on the streets of
Mumbai. He has no wish to return home. According to him: "We get food, a
place to sleep, some money, and most important of all unrestricted freedom.
What more do we want?" But his
words contradict his wish that 11-year-old Irfan,
who joined his group recently, be taken away in order to lead a better life.
Unaware of the harsh realities of street life, Irfan
ran away from his home in Umarkhand to educate
himself in Mumbai. Though the kids paint a rosy
picture of life, they are also aware of its grim realities. Apart from
sustaining themselves, what they fear most is the beatings met out by the
police. Entering the trains to procure meals, sleeping on platforms by night
invite police lathis. But it is drug-addiction that is the
biggest cause for concern, when it comes to street children, according to the
city's NGOs. Giving children a voice: street wise www.guardian.co.uk/journalismcompetition/street.wise Shekhar was 12 when he ran away from his
home in Bihar, India's poorest state. Like many of India's runaways, he left
the crippling poverty of rural India and the family he felt he was a burden
to. He jumped on a train and eluded ticket collectors all the way to Delhi. On arrival in Delhi, Shekhar met another street kid who pointed him to the
temple for a free meal. Shekhar joined the
estimated one million children who make their homes on the streets of Delhi, ekeing out a living - rag picking, shoe shining and in
some cases, pickpocketing and drug peddling. Not
all of the children are runaways: some are abandoned, or neglected; others
work on the streets returning home to sleep. For these children the street is
a work place, and they are an integral part of the city's economy. Some, like
Shekhar, work sweeping the train cars and
collecting any left over food. Rag pickers and bottle collectors play a
useful role in a city with no real recycling programme
or general rubbish collection. Delhi's streets are an urban
jungle where each day is spent battling against hunger, abuse, illness and
fear. The popular perception of the street children is of lawless,
crime-prone outcasts. Police and local officials use violence and
intimidation widely against them. The government response is to round the
children up and dump them in jail-like remand homes. HARSH NECESSITIES - Abuse often drives boys from
their homes, who flee their families to escape
intolerable abuse. These are acts of incredible courage for children so
young, echoed and repeated in the lives of tens of thousands of street
children who decide at very young ages to bravely escape violence and abuse
in their homes — alcoholic fathers, physical and sexual violence — by fending
for themselves, at whatever cost. But we also have children who were lost or
abandoned by their families at such a young age that they do not recall their
origins. The streets are the only home that they remember. NO OTHER HOME - Some are also simply born to
the streets. In Chennai, in particular, we encountered several families which
had lived for several generations on the same piece of pavement. Their great
grandparents came to the city, sometimes 80 years earlier or longer, and the
patriarchs colonised gradually “their” part of the
pavement. New generations were born, one following the next, and they all
grew up in the same stretch of pavement. This was the only home that the
large extended family now knew. Mohan, a street boy in Chennai, said,
“Homelessness is not a new thing for me. I was born into streets, and it was
here that I was brought up.” He is convinced that they will be forced to
return to the streets. Likewise, Mythili is another
of “homeless lineage”. When she was a child, her father was irresponsible, “a
drunkard, he never cared for us”, she recounts, and her mother fed them by
selling food cooked by her on the pavements to other homeless people. I attended a workshop with 60
school children in Delhi recently. All were between 14 and 17 years old. Half
were from Delhi’s elite schools, and the other half were homeless children
who lived on the streets near the railway station and were being helped along
by an NGO. These 60 kids had been working together for a couple of weeks
already. Their facilitator asked each of them to name a child in the room
they were learning to respect. Almost all the street children named richer
children. They said they admired the better off children for their
sophistication and for their kindness. All the rich children named street
kids. They said they admired these kids for their courage, intelligence, and
initiative. This begs the question: who is the ‘fittest’? Street children
struggle to survive in Mumbai Most Indian street children work.
Children who work, are not only subject to the strains and hazards of their labour, but are also denied the education or training
that could enable them to escape the poverty trap. Poor health is a chronic problem for them.
Half of all children in India are malnourished, but for street children, the
proportion is much higher. These children are not only underweight, but their
growth has often been stunted.
Everyday, I come across such homeless kids begging, some near a
ticket-counter, some near a food store, some at traffic signals, selling
flowers or books. Mumbai, a city that
gives place to each and everyone, doesnt have place
for them. In
pictures: Indian railways' runaway children Bangalore's railway station is a
gateway for thousands of India's hopefuls, coming to chase their dreams in
the country's booming IT and call-centre hub.
But some of the daily arrivals never make it past the platforms. Many of the city's 20,000 street children
make the vast railway station their home.
Here, they wander untidy and unkempt and survive by begging, stealing
and doing menial jobs such as sweeping trains and platforms. CBI
goes after foster parents in child racket The case had originated on the
basis of complaints from parents about missing children. One of them, the
child of Kathiravel and Nagamani,
pavement-dwellers in Pulianthope, had been allegedly kidnapped and sold to a
Dutch couple. Similarly, the
four-year-old child of Sylvia, a woman from Otteri,
was kidnapped from an auto and sold to a couple in Australia. Another couple
from the city had lost their one-and-a-half-year old child, who was traced to
the US. The racket was busted in the city
in the first week of May 2005 after the Otteri
police received specific information about kidnapping of children in and
around Otteri.
The police team then started investigations and arrested seven people
identified as Varadharajan, Sheikh Dawood, Navjeen, Sabeera, Manoharan, Salima and K.T. Dawood. They
subsequently traced the racket to an illegal adoption agency, Malaysian
Social Service, which had kidnapped street
children and sold them to foreigners after forging certificates. The case
was subsequently transferred to the Crime Branch. - htsc Promoter held for raping street children www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?date=2008-05-14&usrsess=1&clid=22&id=230581 An NGO informed the city
police few months ago that they received complaints of street children being
sexually abused by few taxi drivers at night. The NGO has already
rescued some of the abused girls who are now staying in a shelter
home. A senior city police officer said that initiatives have been taken
to protect street children from being abused. In
a first, BMC gets talking about street children’s health Recently, we took a friend to the Bhagwati Hospital because he was getting lumps in his leg
and were shooed out. Even the community worker there does not help us because
we are street children and have no elders to accompany us,” said 17-year-old
Manish Jain, who came to Mumbai a decade ago. Mumbai has an estimated 1.5 lakh street children, who take refuge at railway
stations, pavements and shelter homes, with little or no access to
healthcare. Aras noted that as most street
children do not have bathing and toilet facilities, many suffer from chronic
diseases like asthma and dysentery. Dr
Pallavi Shelke from Sion Hospital who attended Friday’s session also noted
that respiratory tract infection was most common, along with complaints of diarrhoea, sticky stools, abdominal pain and worm
infestation, scabies, boils, malnutrition. A
glimpse at life on the streets in India It's a place he knows first-hand. Shekhar was born in Bihar, the poorest of India's 28
states, and ran away at age 12, jumping on a train and eluding ticket takers
all the way to Delhi. "Basically,
most of the children run away from the country because of poverty; they know
they are a burden to their families," he says. He quickly found that the children
look out for one another. "When I
got here, I met another rag picker and he said `Are you hungry?' and he took
me to the Sisganj Gurdwara
(Sikh temple) for a free meal," Shekhar
recalls. These children, it turns out, are not an anomaly, but integrated into the city's
economy. They are not beggars – they
work sweeping the train cars and collecting any leftover food. First-class
trains are particularly good. "My
friend got into a car with a wedding party and got two pieces of
chicken," he says. From a bridge
between the platforms, he points out some boys jumping between the tracks,
collecting empty plastic water bottles, which fetch half a rupee each. They make, he says, 60 to 70
rupees a day or about $2. In a nook
below the overpass, a child is sleeping under a piece of cardboard. We walk past a juice seller who lets
children sleep on top of his booth, and acts as a banker, keeping their scant
rupees safe from theft. Another shop
on the platform is Chemist Corner, where sick children go to buy herbal
medicines. "Street children are
crazy about Bollywood movies," says Shekhar. "Some will hop the train to Mumbai to see a
premiere. They play hide and seek with the railway police; if they are caught
they get badly beaten." Geetanjali Krishna: Children of a lesser god “It takes most children less than
a month on the streets to take to glue,” said Amit,
who started Jamghat. He and his friends estimate
that almost every single child on the streets of Delhi has been sexually,
physically or mentally abused. The children face other problems as well — the
money they make begging, pushing carts or as coolies, is
more often than not, snatched by older residents of the park, even by the
police themselves. “It is sad,” said Amit, “but the
fact is that today, few are willing to take on the responsibility of these
troubled children.” This red-and- yellow enclosure is
the Children's Development Bank (CDB) — run by street children, exclusively
for street children. As soon as the
bank opens at 6:30 pm (unlike regular banks, CDB operates only in the evening
because street children work during the day), its young customers line up to
make withdrawals or deposit their day's
earnings. Thirteen-year-old Durgesh waits patiently as the cashier — who is as old as
Durgesh — makes an entry in his passbook and hands
him a note of Rs 50. Apart from his daily expenses and an
occasional movie outing, Durgesh is saving up hard
to go home. "The bank is a safe place to deposit my money," he
says. There are many like him —
runaways from desperately poor rural homes who join the big city's floating population of ragpickers
and street vendors. "Most of them are boys; there aren't many girls on
the streets," says Suman Sachdeva,
development manager of Butterflies, the NGO behind the initiative. The bank opens for an hour everyday — a
busy time for its manager-cum-cashier, a nominated child volunteer who runs
the affairs. The job is rotated every six months, giving youngsters (usually
in the 12-14 age group) a chance to learn accounting
and be responsible with money. Child-beggars:
Battering experiences, bitter future The life of a child beggar is very
daunting and frightful. Akbar (name changed)
shivers every time he recollects the days when he was forced to beg. He was
beaten, assaulted, tortured whenever he was not able to bring in his daily
quota of earnings. He took to pick pocketing and other petty crimes in order
to protect himself from the wrath of his dealer. He took to smelling glue to
overcome his hunger. He did not have a bath for months and used any open
space to defecate. Fortunately, he was
rescued by an NGO working for street children. “I was lucky, since I was an
orphan. Didi did not have to seek any ones
permission for taking me to their shelter. Many others continued suffering as
it was their own parents who forced them into begging.” PMC
to build a nest for street kids In a unique initiative, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has undertaken a project
to provide shelter to all street children in the city. The 'Gharte' (Nest) project will ensure that no child on the
street is left without care. If the
PMC successfully implements the scheme, it will be the first civic body in
the country to provide 100 per cent rehabilitation of street children. "We will ensure that the childhood of
no kid is destroyed on the streets. It is our social responsibility to look
after these children. It is possible to take care of street kids whose lives
are getting wasted," municipal commissioner Pravinsinh
Pardeshi said while speaking to TOI. The beneficiaries of the project will be
children of single parent or no parent, children of sex workers, runaway
children and children of parents who do not care for them. New
scheme gives street kids home, school By opening a school that runs
classes during the day and provides meals and secure lodgings at night, the DoE hopes it will attract and educate both students who
have never enrolled in a school and those who would otherwise drop out to
earn a livelihood. “We’re not opening a children’s home,” stressed Education
Secretary Rina Ray, “but we are trying to address a
few of the underlying problems that prevent street children or child labourers, for instance, from going to school.” In a simultaneous move, destitute
women will also be recruited to live alongside groups of five or six
students--a concept inspired by NGO SOS-India, which runs children’s villages
across the country for orphaned and abandoned children, uniquely teaming up a
childcare professional, known as a mother, with a child. “The mothers will be
able to guide and aid their group of children’s educational and general
development,” said Ray. Christmas
sales bring cheer to street children Sanjida, heavily pregnant and a young
mother of two, similarly is really happy with the sales. “I have sold 50 such
caps in two days,” she smiled, sitting on the pavement with her children in
south Budget
for children neglects health, protection A look at the state budget for
children in the past four years reveals that the government’s investment in
the education sector has been at the cost of children’s requirement of health
and protection facilities. As a result, the state has seen a sharp rise in
the number of street children and very little improvement in the condition of
58 per cent anaemic children (between 6-35 months
age). Besides, health and protection, requirements of adolescents have also
remained totally neglected. This was
revealed in a report, “Analysis of State’s Priorities Towards Children”,
released by Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health
Association (HPVHA) in collaboration with Centre for Child Rights. The report
was recently released by Governor V.S. Kokje. Childhood
marred with sex and drugs Street children in the north-east are
trapped in a vicious circle of substance and sexual abuse. This street
culture drives them to a life of theft.
AB's (name protected) home are the streets of
Dimapur, where he's spent all his 17 years. Except
the time he went to jail but that's not his concern right now. He is back and trying to fit back to the
only life he has had, drugs, theft and unsafe sex. "I live on the footpath, pick up
scrap, take dendrite and drugs. We were told about HIV, through the injections that we take we know that HIV can
be transmitted. Then I went to jail for drugs and theft, we were also told
about condom use. Mom left and dad married someone else so he left. I am here
in Dimpaur." India starts
putting its street children in schools Eleven-year-old Anurag never went to school because he had to scavenge
through Delhi's bins, dumps and gutters in search of sellable trash each day
before spending his nights sleeping on the street. "I
never had a home, so it's not like I've left home," he said, holding
hands with his new best friend, 10-year-old Rahul. "I ran away from home because they
wouldn't send me to school," adds Rahul,
explaining that his parents sent him to work at a motorcycle repair shop on
Delhi's outskirts. Anurag
and Rahul are among 30 homeless children involved
in a pilot project in Delhi, giving them housing and "bridging"
classes to help them catch up on lost years of schooling. Delhi’s
poorest left behind in drive to make city ready for 2010 games The father of six is not alone. In
the months leading up to the games, more than 5000 families have been forced
from their homes as the city authorities demolished hundreds of slums and
encampments around New Delhi, a crowded, traffic-choked city of 14 million
people. New Delhi already has 150,000
homeless residents - the vast majority of them women and children - a
staggering figure that critics say is largely ignored by city leaders. But Delhi's handling of its
homeless population has brought into sharp focus a larger problem facing
India, an emerging superpower where the needs of the country's 70 million
homeless, mostly women and children, are often brushed aside as the gap
widens between the haves and the have-nots. In
her own words: Katy French in Calcutta These children have no homes, no
water, no food, no health service, and no education. They are alone. Often
children as young as four are thrown on to the streets by their own mother
and father, simply because they cannot provide for them. They are seen more
as a burden than a blessing. Many are maimed; others are handicapped, yet
they are nonetheless discarded because they cannot contribute. All are just little children left wondering
what to do and where to go. They are at the mercy of those who would use and
abuse them, rather than help them. Kids
earn brownies for companies Can islands of welfare initiatives
change the larger picture for children in India? Companies are running projects for children,
but the scattered nature of these makes them drops in an ocean of need. Says Pooran
Pandey, who heads Times Foundation: "These
scattered efforts, unless put together, cannot have an impact. For, there is
no guarantee that good models are replicated with every company trying to
re-invent the wheel." HIV
Prevention among street children in India : Lessons learned India has the largest number of
street children in the age group of 8-18 years. They are exposed to all kinds
of risky social environment. They are prone to drinking alcohol, smoking,
begging, pick-pocketing and many other similar vices. A vast majority of the
street children indulge in sex at a very young age (after crossing 14 years
of age). The Government of India felt that there was a potent danger of the
spreading of HIV/AIDS among the street children and from them to the general
public. - sccp Children’s Day
under the shadow of the rape of childhood The definition of a ‘child’ in the Indian legal and policy
framework is someone below 18 years. Our laws are neither child friendly nor
child oriented. Here are few figures: - sccp q Less than half of India’s children
between the age of six and 14 go to school. q Only 38 per cent of children below
two years are immunised. q Over 50 per cent children are
malnourished. q One out of every six girls does not
live to see her 15th birthday. q Of 12 million girls born, one
million do not see their first birthday. q Females are victimised
far more than males in their childhood. q 53 per cent of girls in the age
group of five to nine years are illiterate. q There are two million child commercial
sex workers between the age of five and 15 years. q 17 million children in India work
out of compulsion, not out of choice. Giving India's Kids Hope and a Future www.cbn.com/CBNnews/264705.aspx At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] CHILDREN OF THE STREETS - They're seen just about
everywhere in Lost,
runaway street children find their way back home via cyberspace Rinku is one among several children who
run away from home everyday in search of a better life in Mumbai but
ultimately end up on its streets. Thanks to the consistent efforts of the shelter,
several like him are able to relocate their families though a homelink website (www.homelink.in)
launched in July this year. Opportunists
Allegedly Sponsoring Street Beggars in Uganda “The way these children were
picking [taking] the money was rather professional. All of them were
using a [one] particular arm (the right arm) they wave it in front of your
face, and when they pick [take] the money you see them running to an adult
who is sited [waiting] on the side of the road – which brought out the
picture that this was an organized arrangement assisted by politicians.” Lokwir John, a 12-year-old Karimajog beggar denied this. He told me that he was
not attending school and came to Kampala to seek money for food. He said his
uncle put him on a bus with other Karamoja families
going to Kampala for a better life. He said every week,
he sends his money home to his mother in the village. ‘Street
Dreams’ come true in life and on film for two shutterbugs At 11, both Haran
and Vicky Roy ran away from their homes in West Bengal, hoping to escape a
life of poverty and deprivation. But they landed on the streets of Delhi,
alone and vulnerable. Eleven years
later, both returned but as budding photographers, chronicling the life on
the streets on film. Dont erazeus
out... www.deccanherald.com/Content/Oct182007/metrothurs2007101731098.asp This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Following their path Suhas discovered that these children consume Erazex during late evening and at night. Open drains,
parks, and empty spaces serve as ideal places where they sit in a large group
and sniff off a cloth which they pass from one person to another. “There’s a
dog accompanying every gang. These are good watch dogs and protect these
children from police, underworld gangsters or by older street boys who bully
them and use them to achieve their own ends,” explains Suhas. APPLAUSE - No Child’s Play This But more than creating awareness
about these issues, our aim is to stress the need for education of these
children. By employing them as domestics or giving them other jobs, we think
we get them out of a financial crisis, but in the bargain we are depriving
them of their basic right of…..Education. Street
children campaign for their rights in Kolkata They have no place to stay and
have made the streets their home. Armed with placards requesting the
authorities concerned not to evict them, more than 80 street children below
the age of 15 years marched down the crowded streets of north Kolkata on Friday with their parents by their side. For Gita
Paswan, a Class I student, the march was to stop
the police from destroying their shanties and separating them from their
parents. Dinesh (13), a school dropout was there to
make people aware of the plight of others like him. “Police come and evict us
from our homes. The worst sufferers are those who go to schools as there is
little time to study if one stays on the streets,” he said. 7.6
million children are still out of the school, says official There are 7.6 million children who
are out of school in India to this day. This is a drop from the 32 million out
of schoolchildren in the country when Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) project
started in 2001. Admitting that retention of
children in schools was a worrying issue, he said the next area of priority
would be “hard to reach” children such as street children and those in slums.
The drop out rate was particularly high among children from minority
communities and those from Scheduled Tribes, he said. Delhi
street kid becomes professional photographer Vicky Roy's big city dream started
as a rag picker. After picking up empty bottles and selling them for Rs 5 each, he graduated to working in a dhaba near the New Delhi Railway Station. “I ran away from home in 1999. The first
day I was here, I slept at the railway station,” says Vicky. But today Vicky is a photographer with
exhibitions at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi as well as in London. “Street boys are usually very
tough but Vicky was a very soft boy. He showed interest in photography so we
put him in touch with a professional,” says Founder, Salaam Balak Trust, Praveen Nair. With several exhibitions lined up for his
work in India and abroad, Vicky has surely proved that if given an
opportunity even a street kid change his destiny. Auto
rickshaw driver turns savoir of street children news.webindia123.com/news/ar_showdetails.asp?id=709150311&cat=&n_date=20070915 www.theinfosage.com/news/316/ARTICLE/10387/2007-09-15.html Hundereds of street children in Four SSC passouts were drug
addicts 10 yrs ago www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=200706270235551254888984f Four street children who were
addicted to drugs 10 years ago appeared for the SSC exams this year and
passed with flying colours. Kashyap, who secured 76 per cent, said he
wanted to become an artist and study at the J J
School of Art. He said that due to poverty and ill-treatment by parents, he
ran away from his home in a Jharkhand village and
reached CST station where he spent a year.
“Initially, I begged. Later, I befriended some people, who taught me
to work as a coolie. When I did not have sufficient food, a friend suggested
that drugs could suppress hunger,” he said. He became a habitual drug
user till he was offered help by the NGO. Support officials said that such
children are first sent for detoxification and then to the rehabilitation
department, a process that takes about six months. Once this is through, they
are able to go to school. Punjab Governor
lays foundation stone of center for street children With a view to empowering the
street children and to ensure their rehabilitation as productive members of
society, the Punjab Governor and Administration Union Territory, Chandigarh, Gen. (Retd.) S.F. Rodrigues,
Friday laid the foundation stone of a vocational training center for 900
street children near village Maloya, which will be
fully equipped with facilities of Education, Vocational Training, Residential
facilities, playground and other necessary support structures. Bombay's innocent
victims of destitution Eighty million people are
considered middle and upper class in No one knows exactly how many
street people there are, but the number of street children has been estimated
by local child-rights NGO AMRAE at 200,000. The scale of homelessness is
simply mind-boggling. Many children are born into unfortunate situations
where the huge divide between the haves and have-nots depends not only on
materialistic issues but on class and culture: It is about where people were
born, what name they bear, their gender and what religion they follow. All
these factors influence the opportunities a child will receive in life.
Everyone is supposedly born equal, but generations of Indian children have
endured the same unfortunate destination. From polishing
shoes to driving rickshaw, he works his way towards a better future As a 10-year-old boy, he used to
move around on city roads with a shoe polish box slung around on his
shoulders. Then known as ‘Paka’ polishwala,
Jitesh Parmar used to
polish people’s shoes near Dilli Darwaja. Now,
after more than a decade, Parmar aspires to become
a civil servant. The 21-year-old youth is doing MCom
from a college in the city. Parmar’s life did not change overnight _ and nor did he
find any magic wand. It was a worker from city-based voluntary organisation, Rachanatmak Abhigam Trust, who got a school dropout Parmar admitted to a school
again. The NGO also arranged for a
free of cost vocational training for Parmar at its
training and rehabilitation centre for street children, so that he could earn
while studying and not become a liability on his poor parents. In a corner of a grubby MCD night
shelter, children queue up with their ‘passports’ and their pennies at the
counter of the Children’s Development Bank. At the end of a hard day’s work,
this is where they ‘invest’ their money — in “chalu
accounts”. The award-winning Children’s
Development Bank, set up with help from the NGO Butterflies, is run by
children and has street children for its customers. Red
FM extends social activities with 'Dil Se' Red FM Delhi in association with
the NGO Centre for Equity Studies has launched a social campaign 'Dil Se' to provide all-round care for street children in
the city. The campaign is supported by the Department of Education,
Government of Delhi under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). As part of the campaign, Red FM and the NGO
will refurbish government schools and other buildings to accommodate street
children with arrangement for boarding and lodging. When brought face to face with
such children — an all-too-common occurrence virtually everywhere in India —
it becomes almost impossible to ignore them; to say no. A struggle invariably
begins inside my soul and no matter how many times the situation occurs, that
struggle never lessens and is never resolved. The truth of the matter is that
giving money to these children will not have any significant impact on their
lives beyond a few moments. It might even worsen their circumstances; many of
these children turn the money directly over to parents or other adults who
are either exploiting them or simply trying to stay a step above starvation. Meet the heroes www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=inbombay&xfile=July2007_inbombay_standard13453 It works at various levels, which
are an Outreach program which reaches out to street children and encourages
them to leave their street life, a Drop-in Centre, which provides basic
facilities for children who decide to continue to live on the street, a 24
hour Open House for street children with any problem, a Residential Home for
the children, a Drug De-addiction and Therapeutic Community, a Research and
Development centre, which publishes the learning's of the organisation,
a Rural Development Program and an Urban Slum Development program which aims
at empowering people at the grass root level and improving their quality of
life and preventing the children from leaving their homes for the street. Government Programme To Benefit
Street Children (LEAD) newspostindia.com/report-6030 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The Integrated Programme
for Street Children includes the setting up of 24-hour drop-in shelters with
facilities for night stay, safe drinking water, bathrooms, latrines,
first-aid and recreation, an official release said here. The programme also
includes non-formal education and training facilities for meaningful
vocations, trades and skills to enhance their earning capacity. At this
meet, small voices address big issues The Gujarat chapter of Childline recently arranged a state level children’s meet
where 40 under-privileged children interacted with government authorities and
brainstormed on issues like child labour,
education, health and child rights. About 15 children from Sheetal Waghela,
13, expressed her concern about the insensitivity with which the police dealt
with street children. “Though not all policemen are bad to us, street
children are terrified at the sight of policemen,” she said. NGO to move
HC seeking ban on use of ‘white ink’ An NGO is planning to file a public interest litigation in the High Court seeking a
ban on correction fluids—used in offices—and adhesives used for repairing tyres. The NGO
decided to file the petition after a study conducted by it showed that more
than 70 per cent of street children are addicted to drugs and over 50 per
cent of them inhale such “cheap drugs”.
The study by Chetna (Childhood Enhancement
through Training and Action) also states that “white fluid” worth over Rs 60 lakh is bought by these
street children in Delhi every day.
“The liquid is not used any longer in offices. A ban on the liquid
will save the lives of many street children,” said Sanjay Gupta, director,
CHETNA. A
New LIfe Getting Children off the Streets Although life on the streets is
harsh and dangerous, it has a certain allure. According to Koshy and his team, it takes roughly a month for a child
to become addicted to hustling. Earning money from rag-picking and collecting
recyclables, the children quickly bond with each other and become accustomed
to the relative freedom of street life. Once they have enough rupees, they
buy food, the occasional luxury of a ticket to see a movie in an
air-conditioned theater, and cheap drugs. "The street addiction is very
strong," says Dasaka, who's affectionately
known as Anu Auntie. Kolkata registers its young street dwellers Civic authorities in Kolkata have registered thousands of its street children
enabling them access to the state's social security system. Civic authorities handed out birth
certificates to about 50,000 street children in the city, a pre-requisite for
access to any government welfare scheme. The children said that the
certificate would entitle them to things they were deprived of. "I have come here for my certificate.
I need a birth certificate to make my voter identity card, to register myself
in the State's social security schemes and school admission," said
Muhammad Aslam, a street boy, receiving a birth
certificate. Summer
shelters for Delhi's street children soon Sleeping children on footpaths or
on road dividers in Delhi may soon be a thing of past as the Social Welfare
department plans to come out with some round-the-clock facilities. Aiding the addicted www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=inbombay&xfile=June2007_inbombay_standard13135 This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Support NGO works for the
betterment of street children who have fallen prey to narcotics. After spending twenty years with Support-
NGO, Managing Director, Sujata Ganega
has written a book on the rehabilitation of street children. “The book — ‘FLUTE’ is
totally based on my experience through life,” said Sujata.
Talking about the main cause, Sujata said, “The
drug addiction habit is spreading because the bad company. Man
arrested for molesting street children in Andhra city Police in southern India arrested
a gay man for sodomising 30 young boys and killing
one - most of whom were poor street children, an officer said yesterday. Over a period of two years, construction
worker Gundu Shiva used to entice the boys with
chocolates and video games in the coastal city of Vijayawada
- 265 kilometres southeast of Hyderabad, capital of
Andhra Pradesh state. He would then sodomise them and force them to indulge in other sexual
acts like oral sex, said police, adding the children were often too scared to
tell anyone. Delhi's street
children vulnerable to exploitation By all accounts the Capital's
street children are vulnerable to all forms of exploitation and abuse. And
their daily lives are likely to be far removed from the childhood envisaged
in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As a result, these children suffer from
sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse and crime resulting in a deep sense
of insecurity and emotional conflict. Life's
lessons learnt on the sidewalk At the helm of Hamara
Footpath is its founder, 24-year-old Shubhangi Swarup. "It is an open community effort where people
from all walks of life are encouraged to step in and engage themselves with
the street kids in any manner that is helpful," she says. Thrice a week,
from 7.30 pm to 9 pm, volunteers assemble on the footpath facing a jewellery showroom and interact with the kids. The sidewalk classes see about 25
kids with five to 10 volunteers, picnics attract over 50 children, including
a few of their street-dwelling parents. Money for such outings is raised by
volunteers from peers by way of e-mails and oral communication. But it does
not end there. Nearby chemists, general practitioners and shopkeepers also
offer a helping hand by sponsoring medicines or performing medical check-ups. Today, with more than 18 million
kids on the street, India has the highest concentration of street children in
the world. And the number is growing. Many of these children die young for
want of simple care. Many of those who survive are consumed by the city’s
underbelly. Human Rights Watch - Street Children www.hrw.org/children/street.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] In Street kids fight another odd: AIDS cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=235423 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] They clean your car while you wait
at the traffic signal, serve you tea at roadside stalls or just loiter around
begging. And a number of them are carriers of the dreaded HIV or may be
actually suffering from AIDS. Deprived of childhood, education
and a good future, a large number of street children in West Bengal,
especially in Kolkata, have fallen prey to the
dreaded disease through regular sexual exploitation and addiction to injectible drugs. “Street children are victims of
various kinds of perversions, like sodomy, rape, and other paedophilic activities. Many are also drug addicts. Girls
are more vulnerable,” said Subhasish Guha, associate professor, School of Tropical Medicine.
“They are so marginalised that their infections do
not come to light, nor do they get medical attention in time. We are
providing free anti-retroviral therapy, yet hardly any street children come
to us,” he added. When the school
comes calling to these street children Her hair unkempt and dressed in
rags, seven-year-old Rani holds a stack of
newspapers under her arm at a busy traffic intersection in the city waiting
for a car to halt. Just then a van wheels by making her squeal in delight. A
host of other kids join her and they run towards it chanting 'Didi'(elder sister).
As three teachers step out of it, the kids gather around it in
excitement. The Tamasha Roadshow
Van, a mobile school initiative, is a sliver of hope for kids like Rani from the drudgery of their daily grind at the
various traffic signals of the city where they sell newspapers, flowers and
other odds and ends. Filled with colourful
storybooks and having computers fitted in them, these vans are a storehouse
of excitement for the kids. Besides telling stories, colourful
pictures, puppets, cards and marbles are also used to teach them in a
fun-filled manner. The sessions last for two to three hours a day. That's not all. Various workshops on candle
making, card making and painting are also conducted so that the children can
learn new skills and can use them to earn a better living. 'The parents are
also convinced this will help their kids enhance skills to earn more that
hence encourages them to come to us every day,' she said. Govt, Unicef plan education on
wheels for slum, street kids initially, two buses provided by the Delhi
State Industrial Development Corporation will be redesigned, officials said.
The bus, which will be designed so that it can reach crowded slums, will
cover four areas a day. The bus, on reaching a particular area, will ring an
alarm signalling its arrival. Focus will be on school drop-outs and children
who have never gone to school. The bus will also be instrumental in spreading
awareness on malaria, dengue and environment, officials added. For
these children, labour is survival Ravi sells bottled water at the
railway station and makes about Rs 200 a day. "But I have to give Rs 150 of that to cops and other bullies. I get to keep
the rest,"he says and adds there are younger
boys who also work at the station. They do anything from selling gutkha and cigarettes surreptitiously to polishing shoes
and scrubbing and sweeping the floor of the railway coaches. Ravi says most of them work voluntarily to support their
families. Or themselves, if they are runaways. Delhi’s
street children to get new home Although not all the children
would be covered the government intends to bring street children in central The government will also allocate
funds for construction of the "child shelter homes" having
facilities for education and games for children. Explaining the idea behind
these homes, a senior ministry official said, children would be welcome in
these homes around the clock but no one would be forced to come here. The
homes would be run by the NGOs with the help of WCD department of the Delhi
government. NGO
lights up future of streetkids Many children like Sagar, who sell flowers or simply beg at traffic points,
are today getting an window to education thanks to
an initiative called 'Steps for Change'. An NGO, run by a group of youths,
has begun this initiative to help street children get basic education. The NGO educates 80 children in five
makeshift centres in Delhi. They teach the children
counting, Hindi, English and basic hygiene. The initiative may or may not have
changed much in the lives of these children today. But what seems to be
changing for sure is the future of these children and it surely looks much
brighter. But the volunteers of Steps
for Change admit that it's difficult to keep the kids like Sagar hooked to books.
"Initially, it was really very difficult to get these kids to
come to classes, because first of all, it was a very big thing to connect
with them so that they listen to you in the first place," says Pawan, a founder member of the NGO. Street
kids get a park of their own An adventure park exclusively for the
underprivileged children has come up in the city. Tucked away on the southern
fringes, Monobitan will open its gates on
Thursday. An initiative of Child In
Need Institute (CINI), the fiveacre park near Thakurpurkur has different play areas for children of
different ages. While Badhan Hara, a lush green
play area for children upto six years has a merry-goround, sea-saw and swings, Bana
Mallika caters to bigger children. It has
facilities like multi-climbing structure, cycling trek, roller skating pitches
and tunnels where the children can play hide and seek. "While working
with more than 50,000 street children in Kolkata I realised that they were living in a concrete jungle with
no open space to play. The underprivileged children do not have access to the
numerous parks in the city. That is how the idea was conceived," said
CINI director Samir Chaudhuri. Street Children in Phulwari Area
Admitted in School www.patnadaily.com/news2007/apr/041207/children_admitted_in_school.html This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Phulwarisharif police station in-charge Shabbir Ahmed, on Thursday, accompanied by other police
officials, visited several areas and picked up 76 young boys and girls
wandering aimlessly on the streets and had them admitted in a government
school in an attempt to rehabilitate them. Ahmed promised the kids to reward
them if they did well in their studies while assuring the parents that the
children will be provided with free lunch and free books as long as they
stayed in the school. Why
summer means spring for these street children Krishna is one of the several
children who run away from their homes and take refuge at the Kalupur Railway Station. Fourteen-year-old Sultan, who
also collects bottles from various trains arriving at the railway station,
says, “I make Rs 100 to 150 by selling used bottles
in the market but this is only during summer. During the rest of the seasons,
I do not make much money.” Arif Lalbhai,
another destitute says that his favourite train is
the Okha-Puri Express, which he travels in almost
everyday, to get used bottles. He says, “I also sell water pouches to
passengers apart from selling bottles in the market. However, Summer is the
season in which the business becomes profitable for me as I can get more
bottles and sell more number of water pouches.” WINDOW TO THEIR WORLD - Shekhar
Saini and Javed Khan, trust
members and designated guides, love their newfound roles. They share their
stories with generous doses of candour and humour as they point out the various spots at the station
where children get on with their lives. Saini, 21,
ran away from home when he was 12. He hung around the Delhi station for a
year and then went to the Trust. Today, he has just finished high school and
wants to be an actor. He greets the waiting group with infectious enthusiasm
and warm confidence, speaking clearly and fast in English while cutting quite
a dashing figure in well-fitting jeans and cool accessories. He puts the walk
in perspective — "This isn't just about raising awareness about street
kids but also showing how much they can achieve if given the right opportunities." 50,000 street kids to get birth certificates cities.expressindia.com/local-news/fullstory.php?newsid=228654 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] As many as 50,000 of the city’s
underprivileged children under the age of 18 years would soon get Indian
citizenship. These are children living
on streets, those living below poverty line, and sex workers’ children. CLPOA’s Bhattacharya said the survey was
conducted last year under the guidance of UNICEF. “We decided to give
citizenship status to all deprived children born in Kolkata,”
he said. “Once they have the birth certificates, these children will be able
to get ration cards and other legal documents.” Roy was eleven when he ran away
from his home in Purulia, West Bengal, in 1999. “My
parents were strict and they did not want me to play with other kids. I
wanted to see the world. At home I felt caged.” So he made his escape one day and caught a
train to Delhi. He lived at the railway station for about six months, filling
up discarded mineral water bottles with tap water and selling them to
passengers. How to change the world - The role of the social entreprenuer www.dailymirror.lk/2007/03/15/opinion/1.asp At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] As Childline
expanded to new cities, the call-tracking system also emerged as an important
source of child protection information. National data showed that the biggest
killer of street children was tuberculosis, but regional call patterns
revealed a variety of local problems. In Jaipur,
for example, childline received reports of abuse in
the garment and jewelry industries. In Varanasi, there
were reports of children being abducted to work in the sari industry. In
Delhi, many calls came from middle-class children. In Nagpur,
a transit hub, there were frequent reports of children abandoned in train
stations. In Goa, a beach resort, a major problem
was the sexual abuse of children by foreign tourists. Street kids
make it to classrooms and how Three-years back all that Sheetal
Jagdish Jadhav did was to
look after her siblings and roam the streets. Two-year’s ago, Kanaka Valli and her parents used to sell flowers at street
signals. And both could never dream of making it to a mainstream school. In the bleak barracks behind the
Vijay Ghat, on the Yamuna
Pushta, are growing up small blossoms in the dust.
A group of street children have found a home here, in a shelter run by the Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan (AAA). AAA volunteers had come across
many vulnerable street children and their big concern was how to keep these
kids away from drugs, petty crime and exploitation and make them believe that
another life was possible. The organisation
felt that education was the key. However, no school was willing to admit
children from the streets. In many cases their date of birth, father's name
and identification were not known and these were major hurdles to admission. During the group discussion
sessions, children from state shelter homes said the problem of
rehabilitation always haunts them. They also said the homes lack proper
health facilities. Those children who came from slums complained about the
poor health and educational facilities, while those living on the stations
said stations witness a lot of criminal activities of which they are forced
to be a part. VOICE
children enact street-to-home journey Sixteen-year-old Kirti Katarmale started selling
lemons at road signals when she was two years old. Now she is preparing for
the National Open School board exams and wants to become a teacher. Fourteen-year-old Radha
Shiva Goud has lived outside stations throughout
her life, but now has a roof over her head and attends regular classes of
English, Hindi and mathematics, besides yoga and karate. Like Radha
and Kirti, 25 girl street children have a place
they call “home”, four-square meals a day and proper education all thanks to Sanjivani, a residential home for street children started
in August 2006. Mumbai has over 2,50,000 street children. From
street child to surgeon, Indian girl follows dream Chand’s mother was a prostitute with 16
children living in Japiur’s red light area, and the
girl — her family name has been withheld to protect her — was already a child
prostitute when she ran away to eke an existence on the streets aged six. Even for Chand,
there is the constant threat of her past dragging her back to wreck her
future. “If I saw my family again they
would want me back to become a prostitute again to earn money,” she said
simply. Western Rly pitches in to set street children on right track Western Railway authorities are
helping to put street kids on the right track. A few months ago, a classroom
for non-formal education being run for street children by the Vikas Jyot Trust (VJT), at the Vadodara railway station, was levelled
during construction of platform number 6. Following this, the local women's
welfare committee, comprising of female railway employees and wives of
railway employees, approached the railway authorities and asked them to
provide an alternate place for developing a new NFE classroom. Railway
authorities agreed to give a stretch of land at Jetalpur
Road, in the close vicinity of the railway station. Vocational
training centre for 900 street kids in Maloya Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) is going to
construct a vocational training centre for 900 street children at Maloya. While the work on the Rs
9 crore project will start
in March, the tenders would be floated next week. According to the CHB officials, the
proposed project would include a hostel for the street children, besides a
vocational training centre, where they would be provided training to enable
them to become self-dependent. The project would help in the upliftment of 900 street children, who after their
selection, would stay in the hostel and get the required training to make
both ends meet. Civic
body offers lifeline for street children Robbed of childhood and adult
protection, hundreds of street children and juvenile migrant labourers in the city are compelled to negotiate a
precarious existence in a dark world of crime, misery and exploitation. The
City Corporation is now holding out a lifeline for these vulnerable children. While a majority of the children
have severed ties with their family, a good number of them live with their
family either in the streets of the city or in the suburbs. The CDP points
out that these children are not deviant or delinquent; in fact they are
intrinsically more gifted than the mainstream ones. The Corporation is planning to
establish three new rehabilitation centres in
different regions of the city. The existing rehabilitation centres and juvenile homes would be upgraded with
improved facilities. It is also proposed to open four bridge schools to
impart education to the working children. 10
rescued street children leave for home States Ten children rescued from the
streets in Kerala started the journey back to their
home States, with the help of Don Bosco Sneha Bhavan, from here on
Wednesday. During the past month, the
children had been under the care of the Sneha Bhavan, which had been working in association with the
city Corporation for 32 years for the welfare of children left on the streets
under various circumstances. A rehabilitation programme for them is being implemented with the
cooperation of the Don Bosco network in the
country. Journeying into dark lives of India's street kids news.boloji.com/200701/00907.htm news.monstersandcritics.com/india/features/article_1249363.php/Journeying_into_dark_lives_of_Indias_street_kids These poor kids flee their homes
for a better life in the huge metros and get gobbled up in the narrow
by-lanes, or stinking sewers of the railway stations or bus-stops which are,
according to one estimate, home to some 3,000-odd poor young runaways. They trade leftover drinking water bottles
to watch the new movie that comes in the nearby Sheila movie theatre on
Fridays. One uncrushed bottle fetches them up to Rs.2, whereas a crushed
bottle brings a paltry 50 paise. Sometimes they also pick up leftover fruits
from trains and sell them to the juice-sellers in the platform and earn
money. The children, according to Saini, often fall prey to gang leaders who sometimes
sexually assault them or get them into drug addiction. If by chance they
escape from the clutches of gang leaders, they are not spared by the railway
police who beat them without any reason. NGOs’
solution to missing saga: Database of slum kids With the number of missing
children increasing in the state, NGOs working for the under-privileged
children different districts are now trying to keep a database of
street-children and those living in slums. The database will include all
details about these children, and in case any child goes missing the NGOs
plan to help the police with the same. Noida — The mirror of Indian society www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=editorials&xfile=January2007_onthespot_standard193&child=onthespot At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] THE LITTLE PREYS - The weakest of Braving every day This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Like many children who flee their
families to escape intolerable abuse, Ratul is
unwilling to talk about precisely what drove him from his home. But one night
at the age of seven, he walked away decisively from his truck-driving father,
mother and two younger brothers, never to return. It was an act of incredible
courage for a child so young, echoed and repeated in the lives of tens of
thousands of street children who decide at very young ages to bravely escape
violence and abuse in their homes — alcoholic fathers, physical and sexual
violence — by fending for themselves, at whatever cost. “It’s almost impossible to get an
accurate census as they are a floating population,” says Dr Madhav Chavan, one of the
founders and programme directors of Pratham, an NGO that provides primary education to these
children in Mumbai. “Once they get a taste of freedom, living like adults and
surviving successfully on the mean streets, they prefer not to return to a
disciplined lifestyle.” Five years
ago, the average of children who ran away from home in states such as
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh used to be eight years old. Today that average
has dropped to six. Poor
kids appeal to Prez to ensure safety Demonstrating against the killings
in front of the Indian Social Institute here, Secretary of the organisation Subhash Kumar
said, "we condemn the ghastly killings and hereby make an appeal to the honourable President that he take
a close look into the matter and ensure the safety of all homeless street
children and all those still involved in child labour." India's
Street Kids Find New Lives as Tour Guides Children living on the streets of
Delhi, the Indian capital, are trying their luck as tour guides. By giving Westerners
a closer look at the life of street kids, they are also helping themselves to
escape from an existence of crime and poverty. Nearly This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] The temperature continues to drop
in this capital city but these two children continue to defy nature's harsh
climate to earn some paisa to feed themselves in the
gripping winter. Similarly, an estimated 400,000
street children in the city hog the streets daily to eke out a painful living
in the bustling capital -- resisting all kinds of harassment, from changing
climate to child abusers. Undernourished and thinly dressed,
many homeless street children appear to be the most vulnerable people during
winter, especially this time around where the weatherman expects temperature
to dip below 10 degrees Celsius during most nights in the coming months. Many of them escape grinding
poverty at home, broken families or abusive parents, and bravely venture into
the city to feed themselves, despite the extreme cold conditions or scorching
heat in summer, which arrives just after winter in the month of May. Tapping the talent on city streets cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=211325 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] In a bid to bringing these
children into the mainstream society, Humanity Association is going to organise a children’s theatre festival in February next
year. More kids
flee abuse than poverty Contrary to popular myth, more
children leave home due to a disturbed domestic environment than abject
poverty, according to a report from the Ahmedabad
Study Action Group (ASAG) and the Gujarat Institute of Development Research
(GIDR). The study ranks familial
harassment as the top reason behind children running away from home. Education
Made Me a Real Human Being Arriving in Delhi, Shahadat found work at a tea stall. He was, naturally,
more concerned about getting enough food every day than in receiving
equitable wages, but the tea-stall owner gave him neither enough food nor
wages. What he did get in ample daily doses was abuse. After working at the
tea shop for 15 days, he fled, retracing his steps to the place he had
arrived in the city at — the New Delhi Railway Station. There, in a sad
replay of Oliver Twist, he found his “saviour” in
the form of the leader of a gang of pickpockets and the “generous” man agreed
to take him on as a disciple. Street children have been found to
spend their entire day's wages immediately on food, watching adult movies, or
buying drugs, alcohol and other addictive substances; they feel insecure
carrying money on them. These children are a challenge to those involved in
their rehabilitation, he said. Street kids have edifying visit to Empire Circus This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Humaara Footpath is the brainchild of Shubhangi Swarup, a 25-year-old
Xavier’s graduate. At the age of 18, she felt an urgent desire to educate
street children and now has an informal network of 16 friends helping her realise her dream. “I first started with the girls
who sell gajras at signals,” she said. “We get
together at least three times a week in the evenings in front of Tanishq at Churchgate, lay out chatais and do whatever they want, whether it’s drawing,
story-telling, singing or English. The biggest need of the day is to create
the desire to learn in them. That is the biggest hurdle. So forcing them to
bury their noses in books is the last thing anyone should do.” In Sector 8 Vikas
Nagar, house number 212, "Gharaunda",
is home to eighteen little boys who have progressed from being homeless
street kids on the railway station to being students at the local Rani Laxmi Bai
school. It has all happened under the loving care of Shachi
Singh and her NGO Ehsaas. Mermier Bal Ashram: a ray of hope for street children Young children doing odd jobs like
polishing shoes, picking rags, working at small eateries, begging at the
traffic signals etc., are a common sight in our city. Most of these kids have
fled from their home for various reasons and live on streets. The hunger
pangs lead these kids towards these weird jobs or begging, The sad state of these kids
smashes our claims of being a modern and progressive city. However, all hope
is not yet lost. Non-governmental organizations like Jan Vikas
Society (JVS) are trying to create a better world, fit for all children
irrespective of caste, colour, creed and sex. 40 per
cent of workers on building sites are children "I do not work every day. I
only work on days when my mother is ill," said Hema
(names of the children have been changed to protect identities), a
nine-year-old construction worker. "I ran away from home because
my father used to beat me every day," said Mukesh,
a 12-year-old who cleans the floor of train compartments to earn some money. Hema and Mukesh
are two of a kind, both working when they should be studying and playing like
other children. This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Each child has a tale to tell. For instance, Mokkulu Rajendra Kumar (12) lost his parents in a road accident at Gudiwada four months back. Since then, he has been eking out a livelihood here by collecting waste paper. Each child has a tale to tell. For
instance, Mokkulu Rajendra
Kumar (12) lost his parents in a road accident at Gudiwada
four months back. Since then, he has been eking out a livelihood here by
collecting waste paper. Childline to help children in distress in
India www.theindiancatholic.com/report.asp?nid=3620 For instance, close to 150,000 street
children live in New Delhi, of which 7 — 10 percent are runaways. More than
2,500 of these children live in and around the New Delhi Railway Station,
where they scavenge for food in rubbish heaps and sleep between the tracks.
Runaway girls who show up at the train station tend to be picked up by pimps
within a day. All of the children are potential victims of drug peddlers,
child traffickers — and the harsh street life of New Delhi. The basic objective of the Childline service, which can be accessed by dialing 1098, is to respond to children in
emergency situations. Homeless No More www.mumbaimirror.com/nmirror/mmpaper.asp?sectid=2&articleid=927200605934484927200605543859&pubyear=2006&pubday=27&pubmth=9 "Today we have 20 children,
seven of them girls, all aged between four to 14; abandoned in slums and
railway stations around the area. Parents of some of the children cannot
afford to look after them," says John. The couple has promised to look
after the children for 18 years. Their parents and grand parents are granted
visiting rights. From October 1, no home or hotel
can employ children below 14 years. But can a mere ban resolve the complex
socio-economics issues involved? Bhola (name changed) left his mother,
siblings and their ramshackle hut in Himachal
Pradesh and came down to Chennai to work. He takes care of a partially paralysed senior citizen, and his chores include wiping
away the constant dribble from his mouth and feeding mashed food with
tremendous patience. Bhola, all of nine years, sits
quietly by the old man's wheelchair with a `wipe cloth' tied to his waist. From October 10, though, life
might change for Bhola and children like him when
the Government's ban on employment of children below 14 in homes, hotels,
roadside eateries, resorts, and spas comes into effect. Early in August, the Labour Ministry announced that it was adding these jobs
to the list of hazardous occupations in which child labour
is banned under the Child Labour (Prohibition &
Regulation) Act, 1986. NGO to
teach more street children Eleven-year-old Farida, a street kid, wants to become a doctor. She would
have perhaps never believed she could realise her
dream had it not been for Door Step School. Backward and forward linkages that strengthen primary
education southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/137887/1/5339 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] IV CHILDREN, WORK AND EDUCATION - Primary education in There is, formally, a widespread
consensus about ending child labour and
establishing compulsory universal primary education for all children up to
the age of 14, a commitment that can be traced back to Gopal
Krishna Gokhale’s efforts at the turn of the last
century. Yet, numerous commissions, reports, plans and experiments
notwithstanding, more than five decades after independence, the situation
remains dismal. Not only do many children never enter school, there are many
of those who do drop out before completing basic education. And scores of
children from the most deprived strata are or become part of the workforce. At Sambhaji Park, miles of smiles mark celebrations for
street children And it was only after a rigorous five-day training, squeezed between their daily
schedules of rag-picking or selling knick-knacks at traffic signals, that the
100 children were ready for the D-day. SAME STORY, AGAIN AND AGAIN - He was 10 when he began living
on the streets of Delhi. His friends have similar stories to tell of why they
ran away from home to the urban jungle where every day was spent in trying to
survive hunger, beating, illness, sexual abuse and fear. Rajasthan's homeless children find shelter www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Rajasthan%27s%20homeless%20children%20find%20shelter.mht JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT - The Juvenile Justice Act of
2000 states that all children must be given the right to food, shelter,
healthcare and education. So far, even a formal census on
the number of children living on the streets and are vulnerable to abuses has
not been conducted. In Rajasthan alone, an informal organisation found that out of 1.5 million street
children, not even one per cent have been provided shelter. Vagrants & street children: they need a hand cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=195713 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The privileged and the employed
have, more often than not, regarded vagrants with suspicion and contempt
apart from the usual dismissive sneer. Little are they aware of the creative
fire that lies in them. The “Bhabaghure O Pathashishu Mela — 2006” aims
at exploring that creative streak in vagrants and street children. Unique
talent hunt for street kids It's a search for the Capital's very
own "Chhupey Rustum''.
Looking for the star of tomorrow, this unique talent hunt
exclusively for street and working children under 18 is all set to take off
this coming month. It will comb through every nook and corner of the city
scouting for the very best talent in performing arts. There is something disturbing
about Budhia's odd touring lifestyle, with the
constant pressure on him to run, dress up and perform for the media. But
there is something just as bleak about the slum life into which he was born.
A few hundred yards from the hostel, dozens of street children Budhia's age are struggling to survive in the slums by
old Delhi railway station. They can be seen in the streets nearby, addicted
to industrial solvents, fighting among themselves as they scavenge for food.
This is the life that Budhia could have had and has
left behind, at least for now. SNEHA
Chalks Out Scientific Plans To Tackle Malnutrition ITS Monsoon of points in Kolkata www.quins.co.uk/newspage.ink?nid=32384&newstype=c&matchid=&Refid=&storytype=RU At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The second game of the season was
the opening game in the 'cup', with Future Hope Harlequins facing their old
adversaries, the Kolkata Police. Things have
changed in Kolkata; street children were regularly
pursued by policemen, but Future Hope and rugby has started to change the
perception of street children within the Kolkata
Police. Now best of friends, Future Hope boys have coached and officiated for
the police and were integral to the smooth running of the Kolkata
Police 10s played last month. 'Street India Movement' to help street children in Kerala www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Zee%20News%20-%20%27Street%20India%20Movement%27%20to%20help%20street%20children%20in%20Kerala.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] With the objective of wiping out
child labour and begging by children and to create
an Street
children join celebration More than 500 street and working
children gathered at the St. Anthony's The non-governmental organisation has been enabling out of school children to
enter mainstream schools with counselling and
material assistance from year 2000. The keepers of the flame news.moneycontrol.com/india/news/trivia/founderexecutivedirectormesn/thekeepersflame/market/stocks/article/222558 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Social workers are faith workers
of a different kind. They aim to right the accident of birth - like helping slum
children not having access to education or clean drinking water. Seen ragpickers rummaging through dustbins for their food?
Well, this is reality at its worst for some children, almost the minute
their born but there is hope, because some
noble people keep them going. What these
street children dream of? Education These street children live in
areas surrounding the Kalupur Railway Station like
the Victoria Bridge, Saraspur and Jamalpur, the findings state. The study also points out
that these children earn a substantial amount of income by pulling luggage
carts and picking up bottles on the railway platform. They earn Rs 25 to Rs 150, and a major
share of this income is spent on food while rest is spent on sniffing
solvent, the study says. This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] A large number of street kids in
Mumbai are heavily into dope, by chasing, snorting, smoking and injecting.
Many of these children stay doped through the day to hide from the daily run
of the city. They have been addicts for years, and some started as early as
at the age of eight. Indian
street kids offer glimpse into their lives Javed Khan left his village home at the
age of nine to see monuments in the Indian capital New Delhi where the
bustling railway station was to be home for the next seven years. During that time, Khan lived in an
empty sewer, went without food for five days, was stabbed, reported to a gang
leader of street children and saw his friends lose their lives to alcohol and
drug addiction. Slum
tours: a day trip too far? He pauses to give the group of
visitors from Australia, Russia and England a chance to ask questions, before
running through the advantages of sleeping in the gap between the platform
roof and the walkway. It's shady and you have to be small to get to it, which
makes it relatively safe from the station police. But there are the overhead
electricity wires to look out for. 'Several of the children have been
electrocuted by that wire,' he adds. These
children finally have an identity to flash Seven-year-old Munnu
is no longer just another face in the crowd of street children. He finally
has an identity which he carries with pride.
Munnu, like nearly 2,000 other destitute
children of the city, are now identified as the ‘Street and Working
Children’, and also, ‘Children in Difficult Circumstances’. TV star reunites runaway & family This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Rafiq said that he ran away from home
because he was fed up of the constant shouting and nagging of his step mother
and grandmother. "Nani beat me up ruthlessly
because I was weak in studies so I left home and headed towards the railway
station. Once there, I did not know what to do so I boarded the first train
that came on the platform," disclosed Rafiq. Though he does not remember which
train it was, he said he realised he had reached
Mumbai as the sign board read Mumbai Central and he was told that the train
would not go beyond that. Without any relative or friend in
Mumbai, Rafiq started begging on the trains for the
first two months and slept on various railway stations. Street children savour care This article has been archived by
World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here] Where have all the street children gone? They have gone to schools, thanks to Love and Care Foundation, a social service organisation formed by the residents of Tarakeswar, Singur and Haripal. About 120 street children from Tarakeswar, Singur and Haripal go to three schools formed by the organisation at three villages in Tarakeswar.
Apart from offering the usual lessons, the organisation
also tries to develop moral and ethical values among the students. The schools also provide
vocational training to the children. Many of the students have gone to
secondary schools after passing out from primary school. Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram -
Begging menace on the increase Street children, who form a
sizable segment of alms-seekers in city, are vulnerable to wanton cruelty,
sexual exploitation and drug abuse. A majority of the street children are
hooked to chemical solvents such as petrol, liquid shoe-polish and adhesives
that contain addictive substances. Inhalation of petrol fumes is a
common addiction seen among the street children. The street children procure
shoe-polish, thinner and adhesives which contain turpentine from shops and
inhale them to get a high. A dream
come true for street kids It was like a dream come true for
52 street children and working children from Delhi and Noida
who finally got an opportunity to go to school. Street children now direct traffic as policemen www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=360 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Former street children now direct
traffic on the busy roads of INDIA-AIDS: Street
Children Are Most Vulnerable Uma (not her real name) was nine
years old when she was first raped by a gang of homeless boys at the Information about Street Children - India [DOC] www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/India%20Child.doc At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Police Abuse And Killings
Of Street Children In India Street Kids India Expedition www.nuscsc.net/~skie/home.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Kolkata has thousands of children who
live in appalling conditions on streets or railway platforms, or in markets,
slums and squatter colonies. Surviving on the edge, these vulnerable children
are exposed to physical, economic and sexual exploitation. Sexual Health in Slum &
Street children India, Research & Intervention Since 2001 an extensive research
& prevention / intervention program on sexual health and teenage slum
& street children in Street
Children Of India -- A Glimpse. 90% of street children are working
children with regular family ties who live with their families, but are on
the streets due to poverty and their parents' unemployment. The remaining 10%
are either working children with few family ties who view the streets as
their homes or abandoned and neglected children with no family tie CDB is the first bank initiated and run by street & working children [DOC] www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Street%20Child%20Banks%20in%20India2.doc At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The Children’s Development Bank’s
(CDB) 400 account holders -- mostly "rag pickers" and
street-children -- own and run the bank from its headquarters at a night
shelter for homeless children. Many of the children, some as young as 10 and
11, sell newspapers, boxes of tissues and other wares at traffic
intersections. Some work on daily wages. Others collect waste and then sell
it for recycling. Delhi children make play of the net His idea was simple. He installed
a computer on the wall of his south Railway
cops' bid to reform street children Touched by the plight of city
urchins, many of whom are forced to live on railway platforms, the Government
Railway Police (GRP) have started holding evening classes in hygiene and
primary education for the children.
Marathi and Hindi primary school texts form the basis of this
extraordinary platform. A majority of
the urchins have fled their homes to escape ill treatment and poverty. Most of them make a living as rag pickers,
shoeshine boys or hawkers. The most
disturbing problem, however, is that nearly 90 per cent of them are addicted
to inhaling toxic vapors of chemicals such as thinners and whiteners. Oxfam
in India - The street children of Mysore Some children in 25/09/2003 - Summer team big hit with India street kids “We taught at the Mobile School for
street children. Here, the children were collected by minibus from their
pavement homes and brought to the school where the first task was to wash
them and give them a school shirt to wear. There were around 30 children aged
from three to ten years old, and this was their first experience of school,
which aimed to give them skills before moving them on to a bigger school. The
mobile school also provides medical care and a free meal to the children
before they go back to the streets. Street Children Of Bombay www.mitidieri.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/editorialportfolio/bombay/bombay_index.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] An estimated 35,000 street
children live in Street kids
find joy with Miss India Ms Vashi
said that she was glad to be associated with Project Mainstream which takes
care of 19,000 street children, providing meals and vocational training for
them. A business analyst herself, Ms Vashi said
that Project Mainstream’s effort to improve the lot of these children and
make them independent was particularly impressive. On the streets where they live Why Become A Rag-Picker Or Street Child? assamnet.org/posts/index.php?t=rview&goto=6207&th=3108
The contents of this article had
appeared under a different title and may possibly still be accessible [here] THE
RAGPICKER'S DAILY ROUTINE - As a street child, between five
and eighteen years of age, these children earn their livelihood by polishing
shoes, washing cars, finding parking spaces, rag picking (recycling garbage),
selling lottery tickets and news papers, etc. They also work as coolies and
helpers in automobile repair shops, construction sites, and hotels. Their
average earnings vary between 15 Rupees to 20 per day, while the more
experienced ones earn 25 to 40 Rupees. However, these are the lucky ones. The
Girls are forced into prostitution at an early age. Arising at
dawn, the rag picker children start their rounds. With feet bare and backs
aching, they carry the heavy gunny bags that contain the day's pickings.
Sometimes on foot they travel over 20 kilometers each day for the best
pickings. Their clothing is filthy, tattered, ill fitting, and wholly
inadequate for protection especially, when the weather is wet and cold. Life is
very hard as they rummage (competing and fighting with stray dogs and cattle)
through every filthy garbage heap in the city and railway stations. All
recyclable garbage is collected and sorted: paper, plastic, bottles, bones,
metals and rotting discarded food thrown out by households and railway
passengers. With this they fill their bags and often their starving bellies.
If the day's collection is bad, they resort to stealing for survival. If
good, they rush to the nearest wayside shop to ease their hunger. All have
regular scrap dealers to buy their loot. They receive a meager pittance, and
sometimes this pittance is withheld to repay a previous enforced loan. Some
days they starve. If a better price is negotiated by another dealer, the
child is frequently beaten and tied up. However
the issue of greater concern is related to their pattern of spending, where a
major part of their income is spent on drugs, alcohol, solvent abuse
(sniffing solvents), and gambling. They frequently become involved in street
fights. With little money and too much freedom, they are vulnerable and fall
prey to any number of situations that threaten life and soul. Late in
the afternoon they resume their second round of collection. Then after
sorting and selling their loot, they spend their nights on the streets or in
graveyards, where they are exploited and abused. Older rag pickers and perverted
people give them drugs or threaten them for sexual purposes, thus exposing
them to A.I.D.S, and many more sexual and life threatening diseases. A rag
picker is not a beggar. He works hard and considers rag picking a profession
of choice. It enables him to earn money, daily, and offers him ample amounts
of free time. They are very loyal and protective of each other, sharing food
and money. The rag picker is proud and feels that he is master of his own
life. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin,
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