The Sad Plight of India‘s Railway Street Children
By: jm

Four-year-old Kalyan was found abandoned in a railway station platform in India. He was taken to a temporary shelter for children in Hyderabad where he was diagnosed HIV positive. He was given medical attention and looked after by a project run by the charity Railway Children (a group which supports street children living alone and at risk on the streets, many of whom live in and around railway stations). Kalyan later died, not alone on the streets, but surrounded by people who loved and cared for him.

In India, the train is the most popular means of transport. The railways carry 11 million people a day. Everybody moves around the country by train. It’s no surprise that children also move around by train. Many children who land in big cities and towns, who run away, been lost, abandoned or missing are found around transport terminals everyday.

All across the globe, there are millions of street children suffering from hunger, homelessness, and poverty. According to estimates by UNICEF, there are more than 11 million street children in India, making them the largest population of street children in the world. Children aged 14 and below make up over one third of India’s population. Kalyan is only one of an estimated five million children who, despite the best efforts of charity organizations and the government, remain in dire need of care and protection.

The United Nations has defined street children as “Children who live on the streets, pavements, and slums who spend most of their time outdoors as a means to make a living or survive by other means.” In India, street children roam the “concrete jungle” to engage in rag picking, petty vending, shoe-shining, and other menial jobs. They work as coolies, helpers, cleaners, rickshaw pullers, and do odd-jobs in wayside tea stalls, restaurants, automobile garages, tire and tube workshops, and machine shops.
These poor Indian street children often lacked the basic needs that most of us enjoy and take for granted. Though the majority of these street children manage to earn or scavenge for their daily food, they are denied the basics of survival. All street children and ragpickers in India are either abused and exploited. They are deprived of normal jobs, education, food and shelter, and many are even forced into prostitution. Majority of them came from violent and broken homes. Some are forced from a very young age to work to earn money and others are influenced by peer pressure. Some children are part of organized gangs that beg, sing and perform, pick pockets, steal, or peddle illegal drugs. The children are often forced into this lifestyle of vagrancy and crime just to survive.

With no adult to care for them, these children have no role model for guidance. Without parental or aduly care, they find themselves responsible for to attain physical and emotional maturity. Much worse, these children are shunned by society and looked down upon a nothing more than filthy, smelly, lice-infested street urchins. Because of their harsh lives in the streets, they have become very suspicious of everyone. These poor children have lost their ability to trust other people. The years of hard living on the streets of India have made them lose their sense of self-worth and they no longer believe that anyone could give them unconditional love.

With the continuous increase of street children in India, there are groups like Railway Children and individuals from around the world who are sharing their time and talent to help these poor young souls. There are social workers and volunteers who provide street education that includes lessons in basic health management, proper hygiene, and grooming. These are people who invite children to join groups that can give them temporary shelter, proper clothing, and fun activities to keep them off the streets.

Kalyan and other children like him deserve another chance in life. Through counseling and activities that will help them find relief from the constant anxiety of street life, they might have a chance to see some positive changes in their lives and make their future a little bit better that it is today.

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