Day before yesterday I was travelling to a local mall by car, it so happened that I got stuck at every traffic light and waited atleast 200 seconds each. In those 200 seconds what I saw literally made my eyes red. At each red light, wherever our car stopped, a bunch of street children came rushing to beg. I strictly believe in not giving money to the beggars because they should earn a living, not beg. I must have seen around 5 to 10 children at each red light, and there are 8 traffic lights between my home and the mall.
When I returned home, I sat on the internet and started working on my next research : STREET CHILDREN IN INDIA. What I found nearly shook me and i made it a point to post it on my blog as a part of youth awareness. So below are a few facts about the social evil. Do read.
INDIA AND STREET CHILDREN: AN OVERVIEW
India, in its developing stage, has the largest population of street children in the world. Around 25 million street children live here, which is the combined population of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. In the UNICEF state of the world children report, the following facts came forward: 47% street children under the age of 3 are malnourished and around 2.2 million street children die before the age of 5.
40,000 street children die everyday in the world, 30% being Indians. In an era of development, the lives of these children are bleak and misty. They don't know what their tomorrow is. And those who do know, are quiet. What they don't understand is that a child is a man in miniature, and it ought to be treated like one.
CHILDHOOD CUT SHORT: TREATMENT OF STREET CHILDREN
Street children in India are a soft target as they are young, small, poor and ignorant about their rights. The condition of these homeless children often leads to them resorting to petty theft, robberies, drug trafficking, prostitution, murders and other criminal activities.
A level of fear and intimidation is created in their minds because of the behaviour of the police.
Police often takes financial incentives from these children in order to make money and in case the children fail to pay they are beaten up like criminals and given third degree. In some cases it has also led to mental disbalance and even deaths.
These underage vulnerable children if found doing wrong things should be sent to orphanages for self improvement instead of being tortured by the police and the general public.
Under the Juvenile Justice Act, no " Neglected" or "Delinquent" juvenile should be put in police lock ups or jail. But this act is often ignored. Moreover, at the remand stage the law makes no distinction between a 6 year old orphan and a 15 year old child who has committed robbery and both are treated the same. THIS LEADS TO A CHILDHOOD CUT SHORT
THE MAJOR PROBLEM THEY FACE: AIDS
One of the major problems they face is AIDS. The street children at the railway stations are worst affected. 35% of them have Tuberculosis, the first symptom of AIDS. More than 5 million children all over the Indian streets are HIV positive.
Of these, GIRLS are the worst affected. They are Raped, taken away by Touts and sold in brothels. Not a single girls at the New Delhi railway station has been spared.
In 1997, the Inter Press News Service wrote an article stating that the street children in India are the most vulnerable to AIDS. The article brought forward the irony of one such girl, out of the millions, Uma(name changed) a 9 year old girl was raped by a gang of homeless boys at the New Delhi railway station, where she also lived. The same happened over and over again, this led to the poor child delivering a still born baby.
This is just one story, there are millions of children, both boys and girls, who have gone through worse.