World Street Children News :: India Streetkid News

PMC to build a nest for street kids
6 Feb 2008, 0259 hrs IST,TNN
PUNE: 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.

"We have identified children who have nowhere to go. A meeting has been scheduled for February 9 with Rajya Sabha MP Supriya Sule and NGO representatives to discuss modalities. The PMC will be providing assistance like educational aid, food, daily needs, uniforms and medical treatment," Pardeshi said.

The municipal corporation will be providing constructed space for night shelter with all amenities, honorarium to teachers of Rs 3,000 per month for 20 children, educational aid of Rs 500 per student per annum and 100 per cent expenditure for training to project functionaries.

Three night shelters will be constructed and all the PMC schools will be made available for the same. Furniture worth Rs 30,600 will be provided to each centre, Rs 25,000 will be paid per month to project staff, including co-ordinator, warden, counsellor and helper.

Non-governmental organisations Dnyana Devi, Santulan, Eklavya Balshikshan, John Paul slum development project and Bachpan Bachao will be partners to help implement the scheme. The Karve institute of social service, Confederation of Indian Industry, Shishu Adhar and Pratham will also be contributing towards the project.

A survey was conducted by the NGOs and the PMC, which revealed that there are 394 street children aged 6-14 years who are engaged in different kind of work like selling miscellaneous goods, manual works, cleaning vehicles, serving as maid servants, boot polishing and ragpicking. Nearly 160 families stay on streets with children.
The survey found that the street children were only worried about the daily livelihood and do not bother about their health or future.

The project will also rehabilitate parents, if they are on the street or reunite street children with their parents if they are away.

Talent Festival for the Street Children! By BREADS

Bangalore, Feb. 5. BOSCO, Bangalore organised a cultural fest for 500 street and working children on Don Bosco`s feast. The inspiration is from Don Bosco`s words “Giving an opportunity is greater than feeling pity for the deprived“.

BOSCO, which has been working for the Rescue and Rehabilitation of Street Children for the past 28 years, organized a mega cultural fest for the street and working children of Bangalore on January 31 - Don Bosco`s day (The Founder of the Organisation).  The idea of Don Bosco “Giving an opportunity is greater than feeling pity for the deprived“ was concretized through the various activities of the day Mr. Chidanand H.C (Dy. Director, DWCD, Bangalore), Mr.Babu Noronha (Inspector of Police, Central Police Station, Chamarajpet), Dr.Joseph Xavior (Doctor, St Martha`s Hospital) graced the occasion during the inauguration of the cultural extravaganza. Mr. Chidananda while thanking BOSCO for organizing the event appealed to all the children “To steal the opportunity and let this platform be one for the future artists“.  Mr. Babu Noronha Police Inspector, Chamrajpet Central Police Station narrated his own tough and hard past life, and triggered the children to achieve great things through hard work. The event witnessed Children from 15 NGOs of Bangalore Forum for Street and Working Children coming well in advance in their color attire. There were 500 children who were present on the occasion. The whole programme was unique for the children to exhibit their hidden talents in competitions like street plays, theme based tableaus, group songs and group dances etc. The culmination of the whole day`s event was in the valedictory function. Dignitaries like Dr. Shalini Rajneesh IAS (Principal Secretary -DWCD, Govt. of Karnataka, Mr.Davis Rodriges (Manager, Canara Bank) presided over the function and distributed the prizes to the winners. Navajeevana took home the ever rolling trophy, winning maximum number of points. While addressing the children all the dignitaries echoed in the same tone to hundreds of street and working children gathered in the function, that “the service that is rendered to the needy children will bear much fruit only when the children make use the opportunities to the maximum“. Children have gone home with this message and items performed by them clearly indicated the great potentials in some of them.  The whole event left behind lots of lessons for the participants. It was a great day for them to mingle with others from different organization. The event also created a sense of belonging and brotherhood. There was healthy competition. Those who won expressed their joy in receiving the reward for their hard work while those who participated did express that they will work harder and try to win a prize next time. Let us continue working together to provide these children with more opportunities.

Andheri: Belgian Arrested for Clicking Street Kids Nude

Mumbai, Jan 14 (mb): A Belgian national was arrested Sunday by the Crime Branch of the Mumbai police for allegedly photographing children nude and posting the pictures on the Internet.

The accused, Weldela Noro Gayton, was presented before a holiday metropolitan magistrate and remanded in two days’ police custody, a senior crime branch official said.

The police seized Gayton’s passport, a camera, a laptop and a memory chip. The police recovered incriminating evidence from the memory chip.

According to the official, Gayton lured poor children from the streets and slums with money and chocolates and promises of giving modelling assignments.

He took them to his 11th floor rented office-cum-residence in the Pacific Building in Andheri (West) suburb of northwest Mumbai. There, he made them strip and clicked their nude pictures. Later, he uploaded them on the Internet.

The police were investigating whether he sexually assaulted any of the children or indulged in sex trafficking.

They are also attempting to verify whether he worked alone or had accomplices in Mumbai, the official said. 

The operation was carried out by the Crime Branch Unit 9 of Bandra early Sunday morning, the official said.

Street children get a new home Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday inaugurated a new home for street children, Khushi Samay Centre for Equality, at Tehkhand village near Okhla in South Delhi which she asserted would strive to eliminate illiteracy and hunger among the weaker sections of the society.

For girls only

The Centre has been built exclusively for girls who are either working in individual houses as domestic help or have been forced by circumstances to stay with other relatives. The fourth of its kind in Delhi, this newly opened Centre would house 30 girls. It will be run by NGO Samay.

Speaking at the inauguration, the Chief Minister said the home had been built as a joint project under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan of the Delhi Government and Bhagidari movement. The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development would also be releasing Rs.6,800 per year per child for this home.

New scheme gives street kids home, school
Preeti Jha
Posted online: Monday , January 14, 2008 at 11:43:50
Updated: Sunday , January 13, 2008 at 11:59:01

New Delhi, January 13 An innovative idea of providing both education and lodgings for homeless children will take root in April this year when the Directorate of Education (DoE), in a bid to reach out to marginalised sections of society, converts two disused Delhi schools into residential schools for them.

With over 50,000 homeless children living on Delhi’s streets, the schools will not be difficult to fill. “You can’t expect a child to come into school after picking rags all day, and living with the abuse that prevails on the streets. It’s not possible for these children to be educated unless they have long-stay care,” said Harsh Mandar, director of non-governmental organisation (NGO) Aman Biradri, which has piloted the idea of residential schools in partnership with other NGOs and the DoE.

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.

While the residential schools will be loosely based on SOS-India’s Children Villages structure, the DoE is in the process of working out a cheaper and, thus, a sustainable model. The government will cover the running costs, but the schools will be run by two NGOs (names withheld by DoE) specialising in the delivery of quality education. Ray said: “We hope the schools will provide a model that can be replicated in due course. Possibly a public-private partnership could be used to expand the project.” Mandar added: “I strongly believe we need a whole series of residential schools across Delhi.”

The schools will be up and running in time for the new academic year in April.

Legal measures sought to protect street children Staff Reporter

Kerala 

KOCHI: Janaseva Sisubhavan has urged the authorities to strengthen legal measures to protect street children.

Jose Maveli, president of Janaseva Sisubhavan, said here on Monday that incidents of handing over children rescued from the street to their parents (who forced them into beggary) were going up. The parents were using loopholes in the Juvenile Justice Act to ensure the custody of their children, he said.

Mr. Maveli said that a few children, who were handed back to their parents, returned to Janaseva Sisubhavan fearing that they would be tortured and forced to beg on the street.

P.K. Shamsuddin, former judge and patron of Janaseva Sisubhavan, called for setting up quasi-judicial tribunals to save street children.

Boys’ Home nearing completion
Tuesday January 1 2008 10:04 IST

K.J. Francis Joy

ALUVA: Janaseva, a voluntary organisation based in Aluva and committed to – India Without Street Children, is all set to cross yet another milestone in its path of growth with the construction of the Boys’ Home. It will be completed by January.

The Boys Home, being constructed in Madurapuram at Mekkad near Aluva, is aimed to cater to the needs of the poor boys who are stranded on streets, engaged in begging, forced to perform in Circuses, exploited sexually and tortured by the so called ‘parents’, said Janaseva president Jose Mavely.

These unfortunate children will be provided with food, shelter and education. They will be brought to the mainstream of the society, Mavely added.

The construction of the threestoreyed main building of the Boys’ Home having 30,000 sq. ft. area, has been almost completed. A basketball court, football ground and swimming pool were constructed near the Boys’ Home.

Launched in 1997, the Janaseva runs Sisubhavan, Sneha Veedu, Street India Movement, Amma Veedu and Sthri Sakthi (woman empowerment) units apart from the Boys’ Home.

Around 140 girls and boys aged below five years are taken care of in the Janaseva Sisubhavan and 130 boys above the age of five years are sheltered in the Boys’ Home. But, now, the Janaseva is in a deep financial crisis, Jose Mavely said.

Janaseva Sisubhavan can be contacted over phone on 0484-2606079, 2603379. e-mail: janasevasisubhavan@rediffmail.com, Website www.janasevasisubhavan.net or Janaseva PB No. 107, Aluva.

Christmas sales bring cheer to street kids

Azera Rahman, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, December 24, 2007
First Published: 13:10 IST(24/12/2007)
Last Updated: 13:20 IST(24/12/2007)

In the grey winter mornings, six-year-old Chottu smiles as he trots along one of the capital’s roads with a bunch of red Santa caps under his arms. He has no clue what Christmas is. But he does know that he makes an extra buck at this time, bringing cheer to his family.

Chottu is just one of the hundreds of children on the Indian capital’s roads who, like elsewhere, sell various items, from newspapers and magazines to balloons, flowers and other products to commuters.

Pleading and begging, more often than not their faces are clouded with disappointment as people roll up the car windows or shoo them away as they try to sell their products.

But not during Christmas.

"Since the past three-four days, I haven’t had to work too hard to sell my caps. They are readily bought by people," Chottu told IANS, a little hesitant, a little shy.

So what does Christmas mean to him and his family?

"Hmm? At this time of the year generally the sales go up, so I bring more money back home…and we - my mother, I and my baby sister - all are happy," he said.

According to Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of the Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA), an NGO that works for the benefit of children, there are nearly 5,000 street kids involved in the selling of Christmas decorations.

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 kids in south Delhi’s RK Puram area.

"I get these caps from Sadar Bazar, which is a wholesale market, near Connaught Place. I sell them at Rs 25," she said, folding the last cap into a polythene packet.

"Otherwise, I sell red roses, which I buy from the early morning flower market in Connaught Place itself. Although I am selling flowers too, the rapid sale of caps has lightened the load of earning my daily bread," she said even as a huge bunch of flowers lay beside her.

Although these items - the red Santa Claus caps or the Santa Claus mask - are easily available in the market, people prefer buying them from the street kids instead.

"Call it the festive mood or whatever, but when celebrations are around the corner you like to see happy faces around. You want to make people happy. That’s why these days when a street kid approaches me with a red cap I simply buy it," said Rajesh Kumar, a teacher.

"In any case my kids would buy it from the market…why not make these kids happy as well by buying their stuff?"

As the mood is upbeat, with Christmas and then the New Year round the corner, people tend to give away and splurge a little.

"The other day I was returning from a get-together in an auto when at the red light a kid came by, begging me to buy his balloons. Somehow I was so moved at the sight of his torn clothes that I bought the entire bunch of balloons," said Sharda Nath, a college student.

"That smile on his face…it was adorable. He was obviously not expecting it! I then gifted those balloons to my friend. It just made me happy seeing the kid and then my friend thrilled."

Like on Christmas, the sale of miniature flags on Independence Day or flowers on Valentine’s Day also shoots up.

"I don’t know what ‘Krismas’ (Christmas) is or who Santa is but he must be a good man. Whenever he comes, he brings smiles to my home," said Chutki, a smiling eight-year-old with Santa Claus masks tucked under her arm.

Christmas brings cheer to street children in Guwahati
From our ANI Correspondent

Guwahati, Dec 22: Christmas season brought cheer to street children in Guwahati as social activists gave them food, clothes and enjoyment.
    
Preety Sangma, a social activist said the aim of the event was to bring some sunshine in an otherwise gloomy existence of the neglected children.

"We thought it will be good gesture for these children so that we can give them love. They are unwanted and unprivileged. So, we thought like we can give the love of Jesus to them," said Preety.

The children said they thoroughly enjoyed the outing.

"People treated us so well. We played, joked really enjoyed it," said Prem Darjee, a child.

The venue was Christ Church at Panbazar in Guwahati. Established in 1844, Christ Church is the oldest in north eastern India.

Most of the children, living in nearby slums, eke out a living as rag pickers.

Childhood marred with sex and drugs
Kishalay Bhattacharjee
Saturday, December 22, 2007 (Dimpaur)
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.'’

A teenage girl is part of Bablu’s gang and a sex worker. For social workers Wapangla and Katia counselling these children is a near-impossible task.

Wapangla and Katia who work with street children said, ‘’Its very difficult to reach out to them because they were abandoned by their families. Their father-mother were drug addicts, drugs have been their strength so it’s very difficult to counsel them. Only in one or two we have seen a change.'’

CD (name protected) is one of the lucky few who’s moved to rehabilitation after spending seven years on the streets. We met him at a pre-Christmas party hosted by his friends where they reminisced about old times.

Some children said, ‘’We would roam around the street steal and do drugs, that was a different life.'’

Another kid, EF (name protected) has been 20 times to jail in his short life. There are many others like him. Christmas is the only day in the year when they have something to celebrate.

GH a 5-yr-old was molested a few weeks ago and others like her live through such indignities everyday.

Ela’s NGO, Prodigal Home was the only refuge in Nagaland but even this might soon close.

K Ela the Director for Prodigal Home said, ‘’We know that they are very vulnerable to be exploited sexually. They are vulnerable to drug abuse, they are vulnerable to sex work because we have during our interaction with the children in the past few years we have come across girls who are only 13- 14 years but are already into sex work.'’

‘’Even boys of the same age indulge in sex. We have come across cases where we have tested children of 14-15 years and they are not injecting drug users but they are infected. So they are very much vulnerable,'’ he said.

Ela said that, ‘’They are vulnerable they have no access to any kind of information because they don’t go to school, they don’t go to any other centre where they can get any access to education, plus they don’t have access to health care system.'’

Hindrances

Policy makers haven’t yet woken up to the plight of these children, so there have been no studies in the state.

In Dimapur alone two children were found to be HIV positive in a recent test by an NGO. They number of steet children has increased tremendously in past four years.

International surveys show 50 per cent of all new HIV infections occur in the 15-24-yr-old age group.

Ela said, ‘’NACO says let it be the responsibility of the social welfare department. Social welfare says that this is not their programme, so we really do not know what to do.'’

NGOs are also handicapped in their efforts by the law since children can’t be counselled or tested unless accompanied by legal guardians. These children have none.

Dr Vizolie Suokhrie of National Rural Health Mission said, ‘’Street Children are a very vulnerable group. In Nagaland you also have school dropouts. What we need here is a composite programme where we take care of CSWs, IDUs, MSMs and identifying this group through this project.'’

He said, ‘’Unfortunately this has been dropped but we can’t ignore this group anymore.'’

Children have initiated spreading awareness themselves by staging a play on their pre-christmas party on HIV /AIDS.

But in the absence of policies to support street children and prevent spread of HIV/AIDS.'’