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Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children |
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Published reports & articles
[continued] gvnet.com/streetchildren/India.htm ARCHIVES [Part 1 of 2] CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in India. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their
authenticity or to verify their content. CHILDLINE - Toll Free Call 1098 - Night
& Day www.childlineindia.org.in/1098/b1a-telehelpline.htm [accessed 12 August 2014] 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. The Government of
Delhi running the 'youth' helpline named Yuva Phone
line in 24-hour children's helpdesk at CMBT The Hindu, Tamil Nadu - Chennai, Mar 22,
2007 www.hindu.com/2007/03/22/stories/2007032217700300.htm [accessed 24 May 2011] [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 Anasuya Menon, The Hindu, www.hindu.com/2007/02/10/stories/2007021013590100.htm [accessed 10 February 2011] www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/Website-to-track-missing-children-launched/article14718566.ece [accessed 5 December 2016] 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. www.missingindiankids.com/index.htm [accessed 24 May 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/india.htm [accessed 10 February 2011] [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) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
26 February 2004 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/india2004.html [accessed 10 February 2011] [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. The brave tender souls Experience by Salman Nizami,
Greater www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2010/Oct/28/the-brave-tender-souls-14.asp
[accessed Oct. 29, 2010] salmannizami.blogspot.com/2010/10/brave-tender-souls-these-fate-bitten.html [accessed 5 December 2016] The weather has
suddenly turned colder in valley. The sun is hidden behind the clouds and the
jagged peaks of the mountains which overlook the city are thick with snow. The
street children are sheltering from the chill - huddling in doorways. One boy
I often see in the morning charging around near the guest house in Shalimar
where I was stayed covers his head with his ragged and blackened jacket to
give himself some relief from the cold. There are numerous children who wait
outside the guest house hoping for some work with me on the laptop, According
to them working on laptop means earning good money. Most of them are contract
labourers, shoe shiners, handicraft, fruit, vegetable
vendor boys and I have got to know a number of them. There is Ibrahim
whose serious face contrasts with his pink Mickey Mouse baseball cap, and Irfaan who is painfully thin, and constantly asks the
same question: "Mister, how are you?" And then there is Wajid, with his brown curly mop of hair and cheeky smile.
My favourite is Aabid, a
shy boy, who talks slowly in Kashmiri language. His sombre
expression belies his young age just 13. They all have similar tales, a
father dead due to the Streetkids in grip of STDs Times News Network (The Times of timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Streetkids-in-grip-of-STDs/articleshow/6771541.cms [accessed 24 May 2011] Did you know that
almost every child living on the city's pavements is subjected to sexual
abuse? If this doesn't surprise you, you should know that of these children a
vast majority has contracted sexually transmitted diseases? A recently-concluded survey among streetchildren in certain parts of the city show that at
least 15,000 of them are either HIV positive or have contracted sexually
transmitted diseases like Syphilis, Gonorrhea, warts, hepatitis and herpes.
The survey was recently conducted by the National Institute for Cholera and
Enteric Diseases (Niced) along with Unicef, a number of NGOs who have been working with
street children. The survey was conducted in 54 wards of the
Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
According to the report, a copy of which is to be sent to the ministry
of health, most of the kids in question are between 18 months and 14 years of
age. While only 15,000 have already contracted infections, almost every
street child that the survey team came across during the survey, has been
exposed to sexual abuse. "The youngest
are the worst off. Kids as young as six to eight years old are forced to have
sex night after night for a paltry sum of Rs 50! Of
this they have to give up Rs 40," revealed Goutam Panja, spokesperson of
the NGO, Network Positive. About 30 kids between 18 months and 14 years of
age who are affected by sexual diseases have enrolled in
this NGO as members. The
survey found that at least 80% of the affected kids are orphans who have left
their original "homes" to migrate elsewhere and are working as
child labourers. "Their right to work is
attached with their willingness to offer themselves for sexual abuse by
employers and sometimes even by clients'. Hidden hunger Harsh Mander, The
Hindu, Apr 19, 2009 www.hindu.com/mag/2009/04/19/stories/2009041950150300.htm [accessed 24 May 2011] www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/Hidden-hunger/article15941332.ece [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 Frederic Spohr,
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (German Press Agency) DPA, www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/features/article_1465749.php/Indian_street_urchin_bank_weathers_global_crisis__Feature__ [accessed 24 May 2011] 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. The Wild Dogged ones Samarth Pathak, Hardnews,
www.hardnewsmedia.com/2009/03/2714 [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Thomson Reuters Foundation, March 11, 2009 www.globalhealth.org/news/article/10869 [accessed 24 May 2011] Q. Save the Children is active in 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 Rhys Blakely, The Australian, 24 February
2009 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Mark Magnier, The
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-fg-india-slumdog21-2009feb21,0,1071590.story [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Harsh Mander, The
Hindu, Feb 08, 2009 www.hindu.com/mag/2009/02/08/stories/2009020850100300.htm [accessed 24 May 2011] [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 Poonam Aggarwal, NDTV www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090082417 [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Ambika Pandit,
Times News Network (The Times of articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-01-27/delhi/28022687_1_street-children-ragpicker-street-bully [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Neha Sinha, The Indian Express News
Service, www.expressindia.com/latest-news/plastic-banned-street-kids-hit-bulls-eye-with-jute-bags/415528/ [accessed 24 May 2011] 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. The war against begging Harsh Mander, The
Hindu, Jan 25, 2009 www.hindu.com/mag/2009/01/25/stories/2009012550090300.htm [accessed 24 May 2011] [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 Dean Nelson, The Telegraph, 18 Jan 2009 [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Gethin Chamberlain, The
Observer, 4 January 2009 www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/04/raja-chinnaswamy-india-football-star [accessed 24 May 2011] Hoping their luck
would change, the boy and his father headed for the town of 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. The god of small children Nazia Mallick,
Ode Magazine, December 10, 2008 www.odemagazine.com/blogs/readers_blog/4115/the_god_of_small_children [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Manoj More, The Indian
Express News Service, Dec 03, 2008 www.expressindia.com/latest-news/street-children-a-security-threat-at-rly-station/393396/ [accessed 24 May 2011] archive.indianexpress.com/news/street-children-a--security-threat--at-rly-station/393396/ [accessed 5 December 2016] 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. A bank for street children Piya Kochhar,
Radio www.featurez.com/bank_for_street_children.html [accessed 19 September 2011] 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. Chasms between children Harsh Mander, The
Hindu, Oct 05, 2008 www.hindu.com/mag/2008/10/05/stories/2008100550060300.htm [accessed 24 May 2011] [accessed 5 December 2016] 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. Ragpickers who saved Delhi Sidharth Pandey, NDTV www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/ragpickers-who-saved-delhi/38607 [accessed 12 October 2012] Without them 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 [Last access date unavailable] Because of problems
at school, he fled his West Bengal home at the age of 11 and sought shelter
on the streets of Every sunrise has a sunset: Lives on the
streets Anshul Tewari,
merinews, Aug 11, 2008 www.merinews.com/article/every-sunrise-has-a-sunset-lives-on-the-streets/139154.shtml [accessed 24 May 2011] CHILDREN CUT SHORT: TREATMENT OF STREET CHILDREN - Street children
in 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 Deepa Suryanarayan,
Daily News & Analysis DNA, Mumbai, Jul 25, 2008 www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_living-off-the-citys-mean-streets_1179640 [accessed 24 May 2011] 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. The children of a street god Surekha S & Humaira Ansari, Daily News & Analysis DNA, Mumbai,
Jul 24, 2008 www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_the-children-of-a-street-god_1179421 [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 [Last access date unavailable] Shekhar was 12 when he ran
away from his home in 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. The future of capitalism Arun Maira,
The Economic Times ET Bureau, Jul 10, 2008 articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2008-07-10/news/27729595_1_capitalism-free-market-homeless-children [accessed 24 May 2011] I attended a
workshop with 60 school children in Street children struggle to survive in
Mumbai Shilpa Hassani,
merinews, Jun 03, 2008 www.merinews.com/article/street-children-struggle-to-survive-in-mumbai/135153.shtml [accessed 24 May 2011] Most In pictures: Indian railways' runaway
children BBC News [accessed 24 May 2011] CBI goes after foster parents in child
racket K Praveen Kumar, Times News Network (The
Times of [accessed 10 February 2011] 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 The Statesman, Kolkata, 13 May 2008 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Express News Service, Mumbai, May 10, 2008 www.expressindia.com/latest-news/In-a-first-BMC-gets-talking-about-street-childrens-health/307730/ [accessed 24 May 2011] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/p1342/ [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 Judy Stoffman,
The www.thestar.com/Travel/article/417529 [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Geetanjali Krishna, Business
Standard, [accessed 9 Aug 2013] “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.” Streetsmart bankers Meenakshi Sinha, Times News
Network (The Times of articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-03-02/special-report/27764192_1_street-children-customer-care-deposit [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Sharmila Govande,
merinews, Feb 26, 2008 www.merinews.com/article/child-beggars-battering-experiences-bitter-future/130553.shtml [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Times News Network (The Times of articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-02-06/pune/27766097_1_street-children-street-kids-pmc-schools [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Preeti Jha,
The Indian Express News Service, www.expressindia.com/latest-news/New-scheme-gives-street-kids-home-school/261144/ [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Indo-Asian News Service IANS, 25 December
2007 www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Christmas-sales-bring-cheer-to-street-kids/Article1-265075.aspx [accessed 9 Aug 2013] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/christmas-sales-bring-cheer-to-street-kids/ [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 Hemlata Verma,
The Indian Express News Service, Shimla, Dec 25, 2007 www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Budget-for-children-neglects-health-protection/253796/ [accessed 24 May 2011] 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 Kishalay Bhattacharjee,
NDTV, Dimpaur, December 22, 2007 www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070036638&ch=12/22/2007%201:40:00%20PM [accessed 25 May 2011] 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." Jonathan Allen, Reuters, in.reuters.com/article/2007/12/17/idINIndia-31018320071217 [accessed 25 May 2011] Eleven-year-old Anurag
never went to school because he had to scavenge through "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. The Herald ( [accessed 25 May 2011] 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 Katy French, October 07 2007 www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/in-her-own-words-katy-french-in-calcutta-13384016.html [accessed 25 May 2011] www.independent.ie/lifestyle/in-her-own-words-katy-french-in-calcutta-26323237.html [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 Business Standard BS, www.rediff.com/money/2007/nov/20kids.htm [accessed 25 May 2011] Can islands of
welfare initiatives change the larger picture for children in 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 Mohammed MU; International Conference on
AIDS -- Int Conf AIDS.
2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. WeOrD1273, S.V.University,
Dept. of Population Studies, Tirupati - gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102253115.html [accessed 25 May 2011] Children’s Day under the shadow of the rape
of childhood Rishabh, merinews, Nov 13, 2007 www.ecpat.net/ei/resource_newsclippings.asp?id=61 [accessed 12 October 2012] www.merinews.com/article/childrens-day-under-the-shadow-of-the-rape-of-childhood/127664.shtml [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 25 May 2011] CHILDREN OF THE
STREETS
- They're seen just about everywhere in Lost, runaway street children find their
way back home via cyberspace Mihika Basu,
The Indian Express News Service, Mumbai, November 02, 2007 www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Lost-runaway-street-children-find-their-way-back-home-via-cyberspace/235083/ [accessed 25 May 2011] www.karmayog.org/streetchildrennews/streetchildrennews_10969.htm [accessed 5 December 2016] 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 Voice of www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2007-10-23-voa40-66518332/553427.html [accessed 12 October 2012] “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 Upneet Pansare, The Indian
Express News Service, Mumbai, Oct 23, 2007 www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Street-Dreams-come-true-in-life-and-on-film-for-two-shutterbugs/231215/ [accessed 25 May 2011] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/p1072/ [accessed 5 December 2016] 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... Nina C George, streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/dont-erazeus-out/ [accessed 18 January 2017] 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. No Child’s Play This Screen www.screenindia.com/old/fullstory.php?content_id=17502 [accessed 25 May 2011] 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 The Indian Express News Service, Kolkata,
Oct 13, 2007 www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Street-children-campaign-for-their-rights-in-Kolkata/227934/ [accessed 25 May 2011] 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. [more] 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,
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