Street Children in India

India has the world's largest population of street children. The reasons why children end up on the street are manifold and often the problems of these boys and girls are complex and intertwined. Urban and rural poverty, disrupted and disintegrated families, accumulated family debts passed from one generation to the next, lacking educational facilities, school dropouts, ineffective government policies and many others make youngsters become children of the streets. They are dispersed throughout urban centers and the inhuman reality of their lives remains mostly hidden and ignored.

It is tricky to establish the exact number of runaway and abandoned children living on the street because their mobility makes it hard to trace and register them. Often left on their own, impoverished and without a family member to protect them, not aware of their rights, these youngster are one of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups of under-aged children.

Deprived of their essential daily needs, of poor health, unaware of their rights and often not having family members to rely on, they end up on the railway platforms in overcrowded stations where they become an easy prey. At present, there is neither shelter or care nor counseling cells to take care of children and underage adolescents in and around railway stations and to protect them from commercial exploitation and physical abuse. Since there are only a few social institutions to take proper care of these youngsters, it is highly probable that they will fall into the trap of poverty or crime.

No reliable data are available on drug abuse amongst street children. Humanitarian organizations working with street children voiced concern about the considerable number of children addicted to whitener, alcohol and tobacco and hard and soft drugs. Street children are often engaged in the informal sector and do hazardous jobs, often for more than twelve hours a day. It is superfluous to say that these children do not benefit from the rights to health and nutrition, shelter, protection, education, training and recreation. Difficult access to public health services represents a further menace to the lives of these youngsters and often, because unaware of their health conditions they are exposed to higher risks of diseases, including sexually transmitted infections.

URL - www.planindia.org/Issues_affecting_children/street_children2.htm