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| Also see : Child Sexual Abuse, Children, Street Children |
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No child’s play: bank run by & for street kids
NEW DELHI: The cashier counts the currency notes carefully, makes an entry in the passbook and hands it over to the waiting customer through a tiny window. But this is no ordinary bank — as both the cashier and consumer are street children.
The Bal Vikas Bank, or Children’s Development Bank (CDB), is an initiative by a Delhi-based NGO Butterflies, whose primary aim is to inculcate a sense of
saving money in street children, who otherwise end up wasting whatever little they have on gambling or drugs.
Suman Sachdeva, project development manager of Butterflies, said the programme, which began in 2001 and runs from 11 night shelters spread across the city, does more than just help children save money.
“Since it [the bank] is run by and for children, it inculcates in them a sense of responsibility and it also brings them on the path of education since one can’t be expected to maintain ledgers and passbooks without being literate,” Sachdeva said. Trained by volunteers of HSBC bank, the young officials of CDB, mostly in the age group of 12-14, are as professional as they get. The members are either rag-pickers or work in tea shops and dhabas. Since its inception, CDB has grown from 20 members to 1,700 in Delhi alone.
Rakesh Kumar, all of 12 and a runaway from his home in Bihar, is manager of the bank’s Nizamuddin branch.
Sharp at 6.30 pm, when the bank opens after the children return from “work”, Kumar walks in and enters his cubicle.
Soon a number of young customers queue up in front of the cashier’s window with their earnings of the day, anything between Rs 20 and Rs 50. Members get a 3.5 per cent interest return on their savings.
“It’s a matter of pride to be the bank manager. We have regular meetings and choose a different bank manager every six months,” Kumar said. Children selling pornographic material or indulging in stealing, pick-pocketing and substance abuse are not given membership of the bank. Sachdeva said, “One can also take loans from the bank. The request is, however, carefully reviewed by a panel of nine members comprising NGO volunteers and children. These loans are mostly for business propositions, such as tea shop or a video parlour.” The membership of CDB comes to an end when a child turns 18. He or she then has the option of seeking membership in other affiliated banks like ICICI or Andhra Bank. CDB has its branches in Kolkata (West Bengal), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and Srinagar and Leh (Jammu and Kashmir), besides the 11 locations in Delhi. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka also have branches of CDB, which are run by partner organisations. IANS
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| Also see : Child Sexual Abuse, Children, Street Children |
