Judy Stoffman
Special to the Star

DELHI, INDIA –He is an unlikely tour guide – skinny, enthusiastic, with a wide grin revealing perfect teeth. Shekhar Saini is just 19 years old.

He’s standing in front of the reservations office just outside the enormous, grimy railway station in Old Delhi – home to about 150 ragged, barefoot street children, some as young as 6.

In a country known for its many beautiful sights, Shekhar is here to show us something different – one of the sore spots off the usual tourist trail.

We had reached him on his cellphone the day before to book our tour of one of Old Delhi’s grittiest neighbourhoods, as street children experience it.

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."

Shekhar was on the street until he was rescued by the Salaam Balaak Trust, a charity founded in 1988 by the Indian film director Mira Nair, best known for Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake.

Nair was a sociologist and documentarian until she made her first story film, Salaam Bombay, a moving portrayal of Bombay’s street children inspired by Truffaut’s The 400 Blows.

Nair used some of the proceeds from that film to set up the trust, which aims to give back to street children some semblance of their lost childhood. They are rarely willing to go back to their families but they can be protected from pimps and criminals and trained to do better paying work than picking up empty bottles.

Shakhar trained as a guide and is one of the trust’s success stories. He learned his excellent English from foreign volunteers at the Salaam Balaak shelter.

From the station we walk along a narrow alley where Shakhar points out the dusty shops of junk dealers who buy the scrap metal, glass and plastic containers that the street children scavenge.

Enormous transparent bags filled with empty water bottles are piled on the roof until they are picked up for recycling. Delhi has no municipal recycling program or even general garbage pickup, so rag pickers – both children and adults – play a useful role.

Shekhar knows everybody in this gritty neighbourhood and introduces his Canadian visitors with a flourish. We pass a tiny shop advertising a cold shower for 10 rupees, a hot shower for 15 rupees. There are some 300 cheap hotels and flophouses in the area, most without bathing facilities, he explains.

We nearly trip over a potter crouched on the sidewalk, rapidly turning hundreds of small clay cups on his wheel.

The cups are sold in the nearby pottery market to owners of chai (tea) shops and broken after a single use. This is necessary not only because dishwashing is not an option in such sidewalk operations but because of the caste system. Most Indians will not drink out of vessels that may have previously been used by a low caste or Dalit (Untouchable) customer.

The area is pulsing with energy. Everyone is busy. As we walk towards the Salaam Balaak shelter, we pass many other traditional businesses and craftspeople including a dyer, a wicker worker, tailoring shops and people ironing clothing right on the street with heavy manual irons heated by hot charcoal inside.

A video game arcade on our left has a large clientele of street children.

When we finally reach the shelter on the upper floor of a narrow old house, we see some 60 boys in two large rooms milling about, playing, watching TV or napping (there is a separate shelter for girls.) Another room is set up with benches as a classroom. A sign proclaims that the shelter receives funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Salaam Balaak Trust also runs children’s shelters in Mumbai.

One little boy of about 7, a recent arrival who appears to be mute, wants a hug. He clings to me in a way that breaks my heart.

On the wall, there are pictures of the former street children playing soccer and going on excursions.

Mira Nair appears in some of the photos, an improbably glamorous figure.

Shekhar now has his own tiny apartment. He has been guiding for a year but his dream is to be a Bollywood star.

"I have already been in a 23-minute short," he says proudly. "I played a gang leader. Mira Nair invited me to the premiere of The Namesake but I didn’t see the film. I had to stay outside with the collection box."

Judy Stoffman is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

Plight of street children worsens
Saturday, April 26, 2008; Posted: 12:38 AM

Apr 25, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) — – The problem of street children is getting worse in the metropolis as they are fast falling victims to violence, maltreatment and insecurity. The Sindh government has not taken any initiative to control the alarming situation, informed a study report of Initiator Human Development Foundation (IHDF) on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, Rana Asif Habib along with Amir Murtaza and other officer-bearers, said the IHDF has conducted a research to explore the causes and consequences of physical, sexual and emotional violence against street children; contribution of violence in a childs decision to leave the family and home; elements that perpetuate violence and relationship between norms and violence against street children in Karachi.

He informed that 200 samples, regarding the research data, were collected from different areas such as Karachi Cant Railway Station, Kharadar, Abdullah Shah Gazi Shrine, Mazar-e-Quaid, Jamia Cloth Market, Jahangir Park Saddar, Burns Road, Passport Office Saddar, Hussainabad, Hasan Square, Tariq Road, Quaidabad, Korangi and NIPA Chowrangi.

The report indicated that street children are the victims of unplanned economic growth, war, poverty, domestic violence and the violence at schools and madrassas, he said.

It was mentioned that majority of street children are in the age of 13 to 18 years (79.03%) followed by those in the age group of 9 to 12 years (15.22%) and up to 8 years old (5.71%). Most of them belong to Punjabi community followed by Urdu, Pashto, Burmese and Bengalese. The research revealed that majority of street children is either orphans or affectees of broken families.

Conversely, the research results showed that almost 70% children have their parents alive while 14% have single father and 6% have single mother. Only 10% of the respondents informed that neither of their parents is alive. Most of the street children come from a large family as 40% of respondents have 10 or more family members while 38.6% have 6 to 10 family members.

The research report is categorised into two categories, violence at home & violence at streets. As many as 88% of the respondents admitted the occurrence of violence at home followed by 5% in negative and 7%dont know. At home, father was considered as the main perpetrator of violence (50%) followed by mother (20%), step-parents 15% and brother 10%.

Interestingly, besides physical violence, majority of street children also complained the occurrence of emotional violence. Among the respondents, 86% informed frequent occurrence of mental violence at their homes. Contrary to the identified perpetrator of physical violence, the emotional violence is largely committed by parents or close relatives.

A large number of respondents (86%) informed that they faced emotional violence at any stage of their lives on the streets, while 9% denied any emotional violence and 5% didnt have any idea about the violence.

Majority of street children use drugs as 92% of them admitted that they use various kinds of drugs however 8% denied any use of drugs at any stage of their lives. About 75% of the respondents admitted that they smoke cigarettes, 70% use charas, 66% inhale glue and I5% use heroine. After having drug a majority of 66% respondents admitted experiencing violence.

Results showed that these children become very vulnerable after watching violent and pornographic movies. Around 70% of the respondents admitted the occurrence of violence after watching action movies while 20% denied that and 10% didnt have any idea about that phenomenon. Similarly, 60% of the respondents admitted any sexual act or experienced sexual violence after watching pornographic movies while 30% completely denied that and 10% informed that they dont have any idea about it.

Depression is very common among street children and, while talking about the high occurrence of physical, emotional and sexual violence, 66% of the respondents admitted that they self-inflected themselves while 26% denied and 8% didnt give any response. About 85% cut with blades and knives while 15% burn themselves.

The organisation has recommended effective and immediate government measures to improve the lot of the street children. However, the NGOs and advocates of child rights should make a child protection committee, it proposed. Potentially vulnerable children also need orientation on child rights and domestic legislation while NGOs should organise campaigns to make street children aware about JJSO 2000 as well as the institutional donors and NGOs should initiate projects on capacity building of police officials on child rights, the report concluded.

April 24, 2008 23:01 PM      

Ministry To Study Status Of Half Million Street Children

KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) — The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is taking the claim by certain quarters that there are half million street children in the country, seriously.

What is more disturbing is their claim that most of the children were born and raised by their sex-worker mothers and exposed to an immoral environment.

Its minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said that most of the children were from Sabah.

However, the number had not been verified, she said.

"We will conduct research to find out whether the claim is true," she told reporters after officiating at the Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti) annual general meeting, at the Bakti building in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, here Thursday.

Dr Ng said the study would be conducted as soon as possible because it was a huge challenge for the ministry to find a solution to the problem.

"The research, among others, will identify the children’s origin and whether they are Malaysian citizens or not," she added.

Apart from that, Dr Ng said the ministry would also try to find out the number of children with no identification document.

"This is very important. (If) they do not own a birth certificate, they cannot go to school, cannot apply for identity card and when they grow up, they will be a burden to the government because they will not get hired."

Dr Ng said that her ministry would also look into the reasons for the parents to abandon their children.

On sex workers’ children, Ng said she was upset when the children were left outside the rooms where their mothers worked.

"Since the children are ‘our children’, the ministry has established a Child Protection Centre to care for the children while their mothers go to work," she said, adding that one such centre was established in Chow Kit.

Also present at the AGM was the Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah.

– BERNAMA

TN to prepare database of transgenders

Statesman News Service
CHENNAI, April 21: Tamil Nadu government today decided to collect the details of transgenders and prepare a database with the assistance of NGOs.
This was announced by state social welfare minister Mrs Poongothai, during her reply to the demands for grants to her ministry in the Assembly today. The minister announced an allotment of Rs 50 lakh for constituting the board for welfare of transgenders and said the government was considering the nomination of members to the board.
The board would rehabilitate and achieve equality for transgenders in the community. It would look into the various problems, difficulties and inconveniences faced by them, Mrs Poongothai said.
The minister said 12 shelters had been started for street children, who were being provided food, non-formal education and vocational training under the Comprehensive Street Children Programme. She said 50 children had been admitted in each shelter. The government had also launched a project through the Indian Council for Child Welfare for prevention of child abuse.
“The status of women is measured in terms of Gender Development Index. It is 0.71 in Tamil Nadu which is higher than the national average of 0.59. Similarly, in nutrition level and in the care of the disabled, Tamil Nadu is way ahead of other states,” she said.
About 50,000 girls would benefit under the girl child protection scheme to prevent female infanticide, she said. Under the scheme, Rs 22,200 would be deposited in the name of the girl child, who would get the amount on the twentieth year of deposit, while receiving the interest every month.
About 3000 children had been saved by the cradle baby scheme, under which cradles are placed in government hospitals, social welfare offices and district collectorates to receive abandoned babies, the minister added.

Geetanjali Krishna: Children of a lesser god
PEOPLE LIKE THEM
Geetanjali Krishna / New Delhi April 19, 2008

This could be a huge tourist draw if the government cleaned it up,” I murmured to my friend Mahima as we gazed upon the network of star-shaped pools across Urdu Park under Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. I imagined them filled with water, reflecting the moonlight. However, further into the park, as eyes adjusted to the darkness, we realised the reality of Urdu Park was quite different. In dark corners and lonely nooks, many people squatted on the floor. Most were children, dirty and ragged.

I caught a whiff of something tantalisingly familiar from them. “Glue,” said Kaivalya, one of the Jamghat volunteers, “all children here sniff it.” But they looked too tiny to be into substance abuse, I said incredulously. “They probably aren’t as young as you think — the glue stunts their growth…” he said. Just then, a boy, apparently teenaged, appeared. All the children swarmed around him, shouting excitedly. “Look carefully and you might see his tube of glue — he sells one squirt of it for Rs 2,” said Kaivalya. A little fellow darted away from the group clutching a handkerchief. I now knew enough to realise that it probably contained two rupees worth of glue. Suddenly Urdu Park began to look less beautiful to me.

“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.”

In fact, even Jamghat was originally conceived only as a theatre group. “I first met the children of Urdu Park in 2003, when Action Aid asked me to conduct some theatre workshops,” said Amit. Along with fourteen street kids, Amit moved to a campus where they lived, worked and played together. “We performed for Prince Charles when he visited India, and got lots of media coverage,” he reminisced. But soon after, the money dried up. The children by this time did not want to disband, having grown used to having a roof over their heads and the tough love that Amit gave them. Amit also couldn’t abandon them knowing that they would have no option but to return to the streets. “That’s how Jamghat just developed into a home for street children,” said Amit.

Running a residential facility for street kids isn’t easy — the children have faced too many traumas to be trusting. They’ve lived without rules for long enough to baulk when any are implemented. “We have only two rules in Jamghat — no drugs and no abuse,” said Amit, “other than this, they are free.” All in all, over 35 kids have been rehabilitated so far — some have even chosen to go home, while others work or study. Amit abandoned his own dreams of a career in theatre to help these kids earn their upkeep though street plays. “We don’t want people to just give us money,” said Amit, “we’d welcome more sponsorships for our plays though!” While we were talking, the baby of Jamghat, four-year-old Saddam, returned from school, pleased as punch with his new uniform. Seeing us looking at pictures of kids in Jama Masjid, he said, “it’s very far from here…”

He’s probably too young to know how right he is.

‘Hope’ for city street children

Shiv Karan Singh
KOLKATA: April 15: “We all have our dream, but to see it come true in one’s life is what is most amazing,” declared Ms Maureen Forrest, director, Hope Foundation Ireland, as she inaugurated a hospital for underprivileged children at 139B Vinobha Bhave Road, near Taratala.
The three-storied hospital, an extension of the care Hope Foundation, has been providing street children in Kolkata, will provide facility for thirty patients and host an operation theatre, pathology department, X-ray department and ECG  facility.
Ms Forrest stressed that the hospital has not been established “to duplicate any existing services”, but to provide a place to treat children who face rejection in other primary and emergency healthcare centres.
The hospital will host an outpatient facility for the local population, but as director, Hope Kolkata Foundation, Ms Geeta Venkadakrishnan noted: “The hospital is not for adults who can afford government medical facilities.” Such patients will be refered to government hospitals. Dr Alok Maity, medical director of the new hospital, will have a team of eight doctors, both specialists and general medical practitioners, and twenty-one nurses, of which he has already hired nine. “We are prepared to begin functioning from next week,” added Dr Maity after the function.

Street Children Project at Maloya to be functional this year, says Punjab Governor
Punjab Newsline Network   
Friday, 11 April 2008

CHANDIGARH:  The first phase of the innovative project for empowering street children and helping them to cope, being constructed at Maloya, will be functional this year.

This was announced by the Punjab Governor and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh, Gen. (Retd.), S.F. Rodrigues, PVSM VSM during his visit at the developmental projects, here Friday.

Rodrigues asked the executing agencies to adhere to the schedule of completion of different phases and create necessary support services and infrastructural facilities for housing 300 children and training them in different vocations in the first phase by August, 2008 and subsequently making it ready, in all respects, to accommodate 900 street children by March, next year.

Accompanied by  Jean Rodrigues, the Administrator went round the complex under construction and discussed with senior officers of Chandigarh Housing Board, Engineering Department and Social Welfare Department, the details of the facilities to be created in the state-of-the-art project.

He asked the Secretary Finance –cum-Engineering, Sanjay Kumar, to coordinate the endeavour and to ensure that peripheral services, such as sewerage, storm water, water supply and electricity and all necessary infrastructure for commencing the operation of the first phase must be in place for providing accommodation and training facilities, besides making arrangement for furniture, deployment/recruitment of staff and for identification of children to be housed in the Vocational Training Center.

It may be recalled that General Rodrigues laid the foundation of this Rs. 7.40 crore unique project on September 7, 2007, setting a deadline for the completion of the project. It will extend vocational training facilities to street children in electrical, electronics repair/assembling services, beauty culture, cutting, tailoring and embroidery, motor mechanic, carpentry, food processing and dress designing to enable them to lead lives of dignity, respect and confidence.

General Rodrigues also took stock of the progress of construction work at the vocational Training and Production Center, in Sector 46-D. He told the executing agencies that the vocational training and production center, being constructed at a cost of Rs. 2.86 crores, with various facilities aims, to impart professional skills to the needy and empower them to be useful and productive members of society.

Rodrigues emphasized that dedicated NGOs and committed social activists & experts must be associated with these societal ventures, to help us understand the needs of these vulnerable groups and who can spare time and energy to provide counseling services to make these people useful and productive citizens of society.

He said that these projects must have partnerships with caring and concerned people  and also emphasized that priority should be given to children in the first phase to those who have nobody to look after them.

The Administrator also visited village Hallomajra and took stock of developmental works.  He approved the plans for making it a integrated township, with the focus on facilities of education and vocational training, for empowering our citizens. 

Street kids on super highway
Article from: The Daily Telegraph

By Stephen Fenech

April 11, 2008 12:00am

HOMELESS youths will be able to contact their families thanks to a $300,000 initiative by the Salvation Army and mobile phone maker Nokia that brings the latest technology to the streets.
The volunteer-manned StreetConnect bus is filled with laptop computers, wireless internet access and mobile phones and is powered by solar panels and its own generator.

Salvation Army Oasis Youth Support Network spokesman Andrew White said the bus was designed to cut through the digital divide which is isolating disadvantaged and homeless youth.

"Young kids can come on board and send and receive emails and look on the internet for accommodation and other support services," he said.

"Sending an email to mum or dad is a lot less confronting than picking up the phone. There have been some instances where sending an email has seen a family reconnection."

Mr White said many of the youths Oasis meets on the street had left their homes for their own safety.

"A lot of the kids that come to Oasis have got pretty horrendous backgrounds," he said.

"They might have drug or alcohol dependent mother and/or father or are the victims of physical or sexual abuse."

StreetConnect travels the streets of Sydney and the Central Coast seven nights a week and can reach up to 300 people per night.

Mr White said the bus made it possible for Oasis to travel to the points of need rather than sitting back and waiting for youth to come to them.

"We go to the usual congregation places where the young will hang out on the streets and the word spreads," he said.

"They know when StreetConnect comes around on a particular night and a particular area.

"We can address the immediate needs with food and clothing and a bed and the longer term needs which could be things like education, training, employment and of course counselling as well."

Mr White said the StreetConnect bus could also help Oasis to make contact with a youth at an early stage before more serious problems developed.

"It’s all about prevention and early intervention," he said.

"If we can encourage just one of these kids to come back to Oasis it’s a way of preventing them falling through the cracks."

Nokia Australia general manager Shaun Colligan said he was delighted to work with Oasis to help to support young people.

"For Nokia, it has always been a core value for us to contribute in a positive way to the community and the StreetConnect bus is a way for us to realise our vision of the importance of connecting people," he said.

Street children attend summer camp of a different kind
Jayadev Mukundan
Posted online: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 at 12:36:49
Updated: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 at 12:36:49

Pune, April 08 As children across the city get ready to attend various adventure camps and craft honing workshops during their summer vacations, 34 street children will be learning the essential art of saving their daily wages. Initiated by Sarv Seva Sangh (SSS), that has been working for the cause of underprivileged children and HIV infected persons, these three-day camps are part of SSS’s tireless efforts over the past decade, aimed at bettering the lot of street kids.

So if 19-year-old Praveen Patil who used to squander the Rs 100 he earned everyday, by selling re-filled drinking water packets at the railway station, on drugs and alcohol is now saving most of that amount to secure his future, he has SSS to thank for the change.

Same goes for the 34 kids who are presently attending the three-day camp that started on April 7, Monday at Mount Patrick Academy. All these children are involved in doing odd menial jobs at the station ranging from sweeping to selling of small items. And even though SSS volunteers are well aware of the fact that it’s neigh impossible for them to revolutionise the lives of these children in a single day, it has not deterred them from the task. “It is a gradual process and we are sure we can instill some good values in them. The main problem in these children is that they lack a goal in life. We are trying to motivate them and develop an urge to live in them,” said Sunita Manj, senior social activist associated with SSS.

She added that all these children stayed on the railway station premises and almost all were addicted to drugs like ganja, tambaku and even heroin. “But we are getting good response from these children as almost everybody, who attended the previous camp came to participate in this camp too,” she added. SSS holds these camps four times a year. In recent years, the organisation had made changes in the nature of its camps to suit the children. Earlier, the duration of the camps were six to seven days. “But we found that these children are not used to such continuous sessions, due to which they would run away from the camp midway. This forced us to reduce the duration of the camps. We find three days is more appealing to the children,” said Manj.

In the camp apart from games, these children are also taught lessons that bring home the importance of saving money and adopting certain values in life. Last year the organisation even took the children to a near by amusement park for a picnic. In addition to these camps, six-to-seven dedicated staffers of SSS visit the railway stations and other dwelling places of these children on a daily basis and monitor their activities.

Bangladesh street kids turn from begging to banking

By Azad Majumder

DHAKA (Reuters Life!) - Mohammad Raju ran away from his poor family in Bangladesh’s southern Khulna district eight years ago, hoping for a better life in the capital, Dhaka.

Instead, his life got worse. His tiny income from selling chocolates in the sprawling parliament compound in Dhaka left him hungry and homeless.

"I used to earn up to 20 taka ($0.30) in a day which was in no way enough to survive. Sometimes policemen, who were on duty at the parliament compound, gave me their spare food. Still I spent many days with little or no food," Raju told Reuters.

Raju’s life changed after he discovered an unlikely profession for a street child: banking.

The 16-year-old boy started working for the Children’s Development Bank, a Bangladesh-based lender that is owned by a non-government organization and managed by street children. He now earns 2,000 taka ($30) a month and can save a portion of his income.

His workplace looks like any other Bangladesh bank, with counters and a cash and ledger book — except for the fact that the bank clerks are unusually young.

Raju has been promoted to the post of program assistant at the bank and is now a paid employee, working under an adult supervisor. But most of the children who work here are volunteers wanting to learn new skills and contribute to a system that allows them to save money and earn some interest on their savings. Others simply deposit their money at the bank, which is open two hours a day, without becoming involved as volunteers.

NO PICK-POCKETS

"Often they spoil the money earned through hard labor by taking drugs or watching movies. Our bank keeps it safe for their future," said Basudeb Maitra, coordinator of the Children’s Development Bank.

"Street children who have a valid source of income and are not involved in pick-pocketing, begging, drug-selling, pilfering can bank with us," said Maitra.

Aparajeyo-Bangladesh, the organization that owns the bank, has received a tremendous response from working children aged 9 to 18 since opening the institution in late 2004. If the volunteers prove to be good at banking, the organization offers them vocational training.

"They can open an account with Taka 10 ($0.15) and can deposit the money whenever they wish," said Maitra, adding that bank now has 2,074 depositors in 11 branches in Dhaka and the port city Chittagong.

"Since it is not a business at all, we deposited the entire money collected from the children, which is around taka 450,000 ($65,600), in a commercial bank."

"Butterflies", an Indian organization, pioneered the concept of a bank for children, which has now been adopted by some other organizations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, officials said.

A recent survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies showed that nearly 445,000 children sleep on the street in Bangladesh, and 75 per cent of them live in Dhaka.

Many of these children work as porters, rag pickers, cart pushers or shoe shiners. They help in shops and restaurants and on buses, and sell anything from newspapers to snacks.

(Writing by Anis Ahmed, editing by Sophie Hardach)