Providing shelter, education and skills training to some of India’s street children - Ruth Forrest

Ruth Forrest, a SAI volunteer at the Development Education Society (DEEDS) in Bangalore, discusses the problems faced by India’s many street children and looks at a new project that aims to provide shelter, education and skills training to some of these children.

It has been estimated that there are over thirty million street children living in India with more than sixty thousand of these living in the large southern city of Bangalore. However, the Government consistently underestimates the number of children living on the streets, declaring the figure to be as low as four hundred thousand, spread between the six metropolitan cities of India.

UNICEF defines street children as “children who work on the streets of urban areas, without reference to the time there or to the reasons for being there”. The International Catholic Church Bureau defines them as “those for whom the street has become their real home more than their family, a situation in which there is no protection, supervision or direction from responsible adults”. There are therefore a variety of reasons for children living on the streets and also a number of different street ‘lifestyles’.

Firstly, some street children have continuous contact with their families, they do not sleep on the streets, but live with their parents in family homes in slum areas, and spend eight to ten hours of the day on the streets, where they are engaged in various ‘marginal’ activities. Secondly, there are children, often from rural areas, who spend most of their time on the streets but return home for a short period to see their families. Finally, there are the children who have no contact with their families, either because they have been abandoned or because they were forced on to the street as orphans.

The number of street children in all developing countries has been increasing since the 1980s, predominantly as a result of mass urban development caused by increasing industrialisation and the decline of the rural and agricultural economies. This ‘lopsided development’ has led to the alarming mushrooming of urban poverty and slum areas. Children end up on the streets because of myriad circumstances, the most prevalent being migration from rural areas. However, the breakdown of family units, escape from abusive or alcoholic parents, and other poverty-related factors also play their roles.

The psyche of the inhabitants of urban slums is often complex. The main reasons for migration to cities from villages are low incomes and caste oppression, and there is often a misguided expectation that life in the city will be easier. However, villagers lose their identity when they arrive in a large city. They tend to find city communities hostile and unwelcoming, and therefore feel the need to aggressively assert their identity in order to survive. Street life is very well structured and organised, with its own hierarchies and leaders of the ‘territory’ who control activities. It is an accepted norm for a child to be contributing to the household income by working. The majority of street children (an estimated sixty to seventy per cent) earn a living through rag-picking, sorting through refuse and selling what they find to recycling companies. This brings an average income of approximately thirty to forty Rupees (about 50 pence) a day. This is the easiest occupation for street children to engage in, but is extremely hazardous, competitive and dehumanising.

Street children obviously face a number of challenges on a daily basis. A major issue is the constant risk of police harassment, as children are easy targets for corrupt policemen who need to book a certain number of cases, or who simply confiscate any money they find in the child’s possession. If arrested, the child is likely to end up in a remand home, from which it is very difficult to find a way out if they have no contact with adults. In addition, mafia groups frequently force children to ‘work’ for them as street criminals, especially as drug dealers, activities that obviously increase the risk of police harassment and arrest. This highlights another serious problem among street children;the prevalence of substance abuse. Children as young as seven or eight years old may become alcoholics, drug addicts, and most commonly solvent abusers. Solvents are used to cope with the trauma of physical and sexual abuse, to dull hunger pangs, and to get through the indignities and challenges of the day and sleep through the night. Peer pressure and the accessibility of these substances on the streets obviously intensify the problem.

Street children lose their rights to emotional, physical and social development, to survival, health and education, to play, cultural activities and recreation, to protection from cruelty and exploitation, to participation, freedom of expression, access to information, and to a role in public life and personal decisions. Returning these rights, through providing shelter, health, education and training for these children, is the focus of an increasing number of programmes being run by NGOs throughout India.

Street children have received much attention in both the national and international media in recent years. Efforts to increase awareness have led to several initiatives involving numerous groups working with street children, the launching of specific schemes and programmes at the local, state and national level and the initiation of numerous studies on street children. A central scheme for the welfare of street children has recently been initiated by the Indian Government’s Ministry of Welfare, which gives funding to NGOs on programmes related to street children.

One such program is the new DEEDS Integrated Street Children Programme, based at the Yeshwanthpur Centre in Bangalore. The centre is open to children on a drop-in basis from 9.30am until 5.30pm from Monday to Saturday. Activities at the centre include morning sessions of yoga or indoor exercises, followed by some non-formal teaching or arts and crafts. Over fifty children are fed a nutritious lunch each day, and there is a clean toilet at the centre for their use. In the afternoon, there are dance and music classes, and there is a television and indoor games are available, as well as space to relax and sleep. There is also a highly popular trip to a nearby playground for cricket and football most afternoons. This month the children have all been given medical check-ups (by a doctor who came through the DEEDS sponsored child scheme) and prescribed medication, and some have even been given uniforms and are starting at school. A representative of the Government of India visited the centre for its inauguration ceremony on 17th October 2003; the Government is currently considering a funding proposal for the project.

Despite slightly cramped conditions and a shortage of facilities, the centre is a lifeline to many of these children. A dedicated and experienced team of social workers, students and volunteers run the activities and an increasing number of children are attracted to the centre every day as its reputation spreads in the local slum area.

I have been volunteering at Yeshwanthpur five days a week for a month now, and am building some great relationships with some of the children. They’re a bit tougher than I am, and certainly stronger – although I’ve won a couple of arm wrestles and some running races this week! They have a surprising amount of energy, given that they’ve normally been rag-picking since 5am, after sleeping somewhere a lot less comfortable than my bed. They have definitely taught me far more than I’ll ever be able to offer them in the short time I’m over here (mostly about Tamil films and WWF wrestling!) and despite whatever they’ve been through, they never seem to stop smiling and laughing.