kings of street ...

I was on my way to Bangalore central where my friend was waiting for me.With me late as usual and my friend always a bit too punctual. So much that he prefers to reach before the scheduled time.

I wanted to reach as early as possible but it seemed that time was running too fast and the speed of my auto rickshaw was too slow.And me still cursing the Bangalore traffic as most individuals do trying to make an excuse for their delay.

When suddenly the auto rickshaw stopped in another traffic—
“bhaiya how much time it will take more to reach?” i asked
“Madam without traffic 5 minutes and with traffic 20 minutes or more” said he.

It was then when i saw a group of children in shabby clothes , some with few items in hand trying to sell those while the others begging for money. Thats when it aroused an eagerness to know about their way of living and also at the same time thought to share some with you all.....

To my astonishment , India is home to the world’s largest population of street children, estimated at 18 million. The Republic of India is the seventh largest and second most populous country in the world. With acceleration in economic growth, India has become one of the fastest growing developing countries. Owing to unemployment, increasing rural-urban migration, attraction of city life and a lack of political will, India now has one of the largest number of child laborers in the world.

A widely accepted set of definitions, commonly attributed to UNICEF, divides street children into two main categories:
1. Children on the street are those engaged in some kind of economic activity ranging from begging to vending. Most go home at the end of the day and contribute their earnings to their family. They may be attending school and retain a sense of belonging to the family. Because of the economic fragility of the family, these children may eventually opt for a permanent life on the streets.
2. Children of the street actually live on the street (or outside of a normal family environment). Family ties may exist but are tenuous and are maintained only casually or occasionally.

The reality of the street child is the naked and vicious face of poverty, sickness and exploitation. The tragedy is, that those who bear it are themselves innocent, lonely and frightened young children.
Street Children are those unfortunate children who basically:
* Have only intermittent contact with parents or family (usually mother or sisters) but live most of the time with other street children in the city streets, or are on the move. {There are numerous reasons for a child to leave home}
*Have been literally abandoned by their parents/relatives, found themselves on the street from the beginning because of family problems, or have chosen to leave home due to some kind of constant abuse.
*Those who have run away from home can further be separated into two categories:
*Those who have an unpleasant or traumatic home environment.
They experience family problems they are unable to solve: i.e., alcoholism, child abuse, ill treatment by stepparents, unemployment and poverty. Their tolerance level has been far exceeded, leading to the drastic decision to leave their family.
*Those who have run away from home, who wanted to study/work but were not allowed and came to experience the exciting experiences of city life, glamourised by magazines and movies.

The average age of street children is:
33% 6-10yrs
40% 11-15yrs
27% 16yrs +
Religion of street children in India varies greatly according to area, but, in general, approximately 70% are Hindu, 18% are Muslim, Christian and other.(Almost 50% of Hindu children belong to scheduled caste or tribes.)
82.7% of street children are boys. Girls are more difficult to trace but they are, by far, the most vulnerable.

STREET CHILD ACTIVITIES IN INDIA
Most street children have some family links but spend most of their lives on the streets. They beg, sell trinkets, shine shoes or wash cars to supplement their families income. The remaining children live on the streets, often in groups with other children Known as “street children “ they sleep in abandoned buildings, under bridges, in doorways or in public parks.
Abandoned on city streets by parents too poor to feed them, or forced to flee political instability or oppression, they face a future of begging, stealing, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, chronic illness and early and often violent death.
Street children learn to cope with life on the streets very quickly. They learn to live off the street.
The following is a list of activities and occupations undertaken by street children in India to earn a living:
Collecting and selling waste paper, plastic, scrap metal etc.
Cleaning cars and two-wheelers,
Selling water, sweets, biscuits, clothes etc.
Selling newspapers and flowers on streets
Making and selling flower garlands
Begging, pimping, pick pocketing, stealing
Working in roadside stalls or repair shops
Coolie work or working in small hotels (kitchens etc).
Most street children find themselves some work, even though they may not be steady and lose jobs regularly. Many think of rag picking as a "job". Many children are lured into bonded work or "work-camps" that they are unable to escape from, due to unscrupulous and cruel proprietors or middlemen.

The health condition of street children is generally poor. Many suffer from chronic diseases like TB, leprosy, typhoid, malaria, jaundice and liver/kidney disorders. Venereal disease is rampant among older ones (14yrs+). Scabies, gangrene, broken limbs and epilepsy are common. HIV & AIDS cases are now widely seen. Most street children are exposed to dirt, smoke and other environmental hazards. They are constantly exposed to intense sun, rain and cold.
Though there are supposed to be "free" Government / Municipal Hospitals in all cities, street children do not have easy access to them due the need to pay bribes to enter, or the indifferent or hostile treatment meted out to them by the staff.

In a 1993 report, WHO offered the following list of causes for the phenomenon:
* family breakdown
* armed conflict
* poverty
* natural and man-made disasters
* famine
* physical and sexual abuse
* exploitation by adults
* dislocation through migration
* urbanization and overcrowding
* acculturation
* disinheritance or being disowned
The orphaning of children as a result of HIV/AIDS is another cause that might be added to this list.
Street children are subject to malnutrition, hunger, health problems, substance abuse, theft, commercial sexual exploitation of children, harassment by the city police and railway authorities, as well as physical and sexual abuse, although the Government of India has taken some corrective measures and declared child labor illegal.

They also face many problems which are discussed below:

ABUSE: Many of the street children who have run away from home have done so because they were beaten or sexually abused.Not only does abuse rob runaway children of their material security, but it also leaves them emotionally scarred. Such damage can take years to recover from in even the most loving of environments; on the streets it may never heal.

Child Labor: Most Indian street children work. a common job is rag-picking, in which boys and girls as young as 6 years old sift through garbage in order to collect recyclable material. The children usually rise before dawn and carry their heavy load in a large bag over their shoulder. Rag-pickers can be seen alongside pigs and dogs searching through trash heaps on their hands and knees.

Other common jobs are the collecting of firewood, tending to animals, street vending, dyeing, begging, prostitution and domestic labor.
Gender Discrimination: In Indian Society females are often discriminated against. Their health, education, prosperity and freedom are all impacted..

Health: Poor health is a chronic problem for street children. Half of 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; for example, it is very common to mistake a 12 year old for an 8 year old.
Street children live and work amidst trash, animals and open sewers. Not only are they exposed and susceptible to disease, they are also unlikely to be vaccinated or receive medical treatment. Only two in three Indian children have been vaccinated against TB, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio and Measles; only one in ten against Hepatitis B. Most street children have not been vaccinated at all. They usually can not afford, and do not trust, doctors or medicines. If they receive any treatment at all it will often be harmful, as with kids whose parents place scalding metal on their bellies as a remedy for persistent stomach pain.
Child laborers suffer from exhaustion, injury, exposure to dangerous chemicals, plus muscle and bone afflictions.

Homelessness: Street children in India may be homeless because their family is homeless through poverty or migration, or because they have been abandoned, orphaned or have run away. It is not unusual to see whole families living on the sidewalks of the cities, or rows of individual children sleeping around the railway station.

Poverty: Poverty is the prime cause of the street children crisis. Poverty dumps a crowd of problems onto a child. Not only do these problems cause suffering, but they also conspire to keep the child poor throughout his/her life. In order to survive, a poor child in India will probably be forced to sacrifice education and training; without skills the child will, as an adult, remain at the bottom of the economic heap.

ACCORDING TO UNITED NATIONS CHILD RIGHTS CONVENTION CHILDREN SHOULD ENJOY:
*The Right to survival
* The Right to education
*The Right to good health
*The Right to free expression
* The Right to be heard
*The Right to enjoy their own language …
and, indeed, many other rights, but apart from the obvious Rights of the Convention, the most prominent problem that street children experience arises from the law-makers and implementers, and the child’s lack of identity.

Street children are, in many cases, sent to remand in adult jails where they are abused, both physically and sexually, for indefinite periods of time. There is little or no provision made for these young children to contact their parents or obtain proper guidance or legal representation. The children eventually escape from these "Homes" just as they run away from their real home.

In other States, street children are placed under the "care" of observation homes, remand homes and other Government juvenile centers, but it is just as well known that these so-called child care centers are sadly lacking any semblance of actual care.

There is a need for these centers to be taken over and run by the NGO’s, and the Ministry has recently mooted such a proposal for Social Welfare. Discussions and meetings are under progress, but when the reality of such a proposal will be realized is very unclear.

The Apprenticeship Act 1850 which enabled public charities to bring up orphans and poor children teaching trades etc.

The Reformatory Schools Act 1867 dealt with neglected and delinquent children.

The Juvenile Justice Act 1986 dealing with "the care, protection, treatment, development and strengthening process of neglected or delinquent juveniles, and for the adjudication of certain matters relating to, and disposition of, delinquent juveniles".

ARBITRARY DETENTION, ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT

Street children are constantly arrested, locked up, tortured and abused in all ways because there is none to take responsibility for them.They live in fear of arrest and long detainment.They have no faith in the police or the judicial system.They disrespect the legal authorities because they have rarely experienced any kindness or understanding from anyone at that level.

THE RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS

For street children, this aspect is conspicuous by its absence, and totally ignored by the relevant authorities. Street children are arrested, locked up, sent to remand, runaway, are arrested again beaten locked up and so on and so forth without ever being offered a word of legal advice, much less a lawyer, or a government counselor. They are sent to lockups, and sometimes jails, for days together without even a hearing. The remand homes sometimes make an effort to trace the parents, but usually the parents do not come for one reason or another, usually poverty. So the child grows up in an environment of cruelty & abuse, physical, mental and sexual and if he/she does not have the wits to escape, emerges a hardened criminal with total contempt for society in all its aspects when they are 18yrs old.
The Municipal Corporations are, however, showing some interest in the plight of street children. Studies show that there are more small programs for street children in the country today than ever before and that some are either located in Municipal Buildings or assisted by the Local Body.

Responses by governments:Because they have not reached the age of majority, street children have no representation in the governing process. street children do not have any economic leverage. Governments, consequently, may pay little attention to them.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) may also be blamed for encouraging children to live in the streets by making street life more bearable or attractive through the services they provide.

When governments implement programs to deal with street children these generally involve placing the children in orphanages, juvenile homes or correctional institutes.However, some children are in the streets because they have fled from such institutions and some governments prefer to support or work in partnership with NGO programs. Governments sometimes institute roundups when they remove all the children from city streets and deposit them elsewhere or incarcerate them
Non-government organizations employ a wide variety of strategies to address the needs and rights of street children.

These may be categorized as follows:

* Advocacy - through media and government contacts agencies may press for the rights of street children to be respected.
* Preventive - programs that work to prevent children from taking to the streets, through family and community support and education.
* Institutional
- residential rehabilitation programs - some agencies provide an environment isolated from the streets where activities are focused on assisting children to recover from drug, physical or sexual abuse.
- full-care residential homes - the final stage in many agencies' programs is when the child is no longer in the streets but lives completely in an environment provided by the agency.
* Street-based programs - these work to alleviate the worst aspects of street life for children by providing services to them in the streets. These programs tend to be less expensive and serve a larger number of street children than institutional programs since the children still must provide for themselves in the streets.
o feeding program
o medical services
o legal assistance
o street education
o financial services (banking and entrepreneur programs)
o family reunification
o drop-in centers/night shelters
o outreach programs designed to bring the children into closer contact with the agency
* Conscientization - change street children's attitudes to their circumstances - view themselves as an oppressed minority and become protagonists rather than passive recipients of aid.
*Children living on the streets are especially vulnerable to victimization, exploitation, and the abuse of their civil and economic rights.

Protecting Children

Many governments, nongovernmental organizations, and members of civil society around the world have increased their attention on homeless and street children . Nonetheless, more action is necessary.

In 1992, the United Nations issued a Resolution on the Plight of Street Children, expressing concern over the emergence and marginalization of street children, and the acts of violence against them. The Resolution called for international cooperation to address the needs of homeless children and for enforcement of international child rights laws.
On a local and regional level, initiatives have been taken to assist street children, often through shelters. Many shelters have programs designed to provide safety, health care, counseling, education, vocational training, legal aid, and other social services.

Many NGOs have been founded with mission to improve the plight of homeless adults and youth.

Smile :Education to poor children Smile Foundation works as a catalyst to change the lives of underprivileged children and youth and give them a better future.
Butterflies, based in New Delhi, India; addresses the challenge of making the Convention on the Rights of the Child a reality by addressing the concerns of all children.

Street Kids International, a Canadian-based organization, all focus specifically on street children.

Prayas Juvenile Aid Center (JAC) Society, based in Delhi , India , pioneered the first intensive study on Homeless children ever conducted; they have also set up numerous shelters providing basic security, food, and clothing for more than 50,000 homeless people in Greater Delhi.

Tamana is not just a non-governmental organization or a school of a different kind, it is the realization of a long cherished dream; it is a social movement; it is an infinite process with a mission to provide a quantum leap for the welfare and rehabilitation of children whose only fault is to have been born without normal faculties. Tamana is dedicated to serving the needs of multiply handicapped children.

CHILD LINE India Foundation is the central agency responsible for initiating, implementing and monitoring the CHILD LINE service and undertaking research, documentation, awareness, and advocacy in the area of child protection. Extending the network based on the unique partnership 'model' and initiation of specialized, innovative need based services, based on trends emerging from analysis of calls is a part of the CHILD LINE India Foundation mandate.

VOICE’s mission is “ to reach out to vulnerable and neglected street children and, through education, enable them become whole human beings and self-reliant, responsible, contributing citizens.”

Child Fund Association, India, is one such organization dedicated to the welfare of orphans and destitute children from extremely poor families.

Nearly 1800 children attend schools and tuition centers run by HOPE Foundation, an independent affiliate of HOPE Worldwide Limited. Apart from looking after orphans and aiding adoptions, the foundation also runs Aids Home, a home for the orphans, and Ashakiran, a programme for the mentally-challenged children

Striking a more practical note is Unnati, an organization that believes in empowering the underprivileged kids with vocational training in addition to high-school education. With courses being offered in tailoring, retail and field sales, the project retains the focus on survival and self-dependence.

Child labor is a bane that has afflicted the society for ages and Concerned for Working Children (CWC) strives towards total eradication of child labor in all sectors. The organization's current projects include, Gramashrama—a micro rural-development project—and Ankur, an effort that tries to mitigate child labor in urban areas.

Ashraya, an organization founded in 1982 is another city-based large-scale project dedicated to child welfare. The organization believes in finding solutions for children within the framework of their own biological families or, at best, in adoptive homes.

Numerous other organizations like CRY, Smile Foundation, Karnataka State Council for Child and so on are intent on ameliorating the plight of kids, thus restoring the lost sparkle in the eyes and the forgotten tinkle in the laughter of destitute children who realized that although they may have "dreams", there is no encouragement to plan for or to save for their future. Indeed there is no safe place where they can keep their money, and the temptation is to "blow" what they have earned on short-term gratification.

Thus with the help of Ngo ‘s banks have been created which are run by street children for street children.

The Children's Development Bank is an innovative way for creating an alternative to the lifestyle for street and working children, which is dictated by their need for day-today survival, their vulnerability and a short-term perspective. The Children's Development Bank was started by Butterflies, a non-governmental organization working with street children, in September 2001, in New Delhi. The Children's Development Bank also known as the Bal Vikas Bank offers loans to poor children to start up small businesses and teaches them to become self-reliant .
The bank does have a few strict rules. Pickpockets and drug addicts are not allowed to become members. And loan requests to start cigarette or paan shops are not entertained. It is also mandatory for adolescent boys who take loans to continue their schooling. Most BVB members are part of the National Institute of Open Schooling and continue studying whilst running their businesses.

Someone once said, “There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever". And yet, there is a large number of children who have never known the carefree abandon of childhood owing to poverty, disease or parental ignorance. Acquainting them with the fun of growing up, equipping them with emotional and practical skills to face the big bad world and providing them that precious shelter from the vicissitudes of life are numerous NGOs in every city of India and across the world, working for children.

If you are interested in helping street and homeless children, you can volunteer to work in shelters and other programs in your area, or donate funds or supplies to organizations that work with street youth. You can also participate in legislative efforts and support many NGOs that assist street children. Finally, you can raise the awareness further by educating yourself, your peers, colleagues, students, teachers, family members, and others around you interested for the welfare of the street children who are also the futures of OUR INDIA .
As rightly stated by Butterflies “a child has all rights to be free as a child and a hope for future.”