Abandoned Rights: India’s Street Children
When we think of children, what image comes to our mind? Pictures of little humans swaddled in love, care and safety. But think again. There are at least four lakh Indian children who live a different life, with very limited access to food, safe water, and most importantly, shelter. Although humans have a natural protective urge towards children, the children of the street are left to their own devices, and their rights as children are often overlooked. Hence, Suhani and Devansh, two young changemakers from TribesforGOOD, decided to research and readdress the child rights of children of India who live on the streets.
Vulnerability at its Peak
The Child Rights are the most ratified rights as it is defined as the minimum privileges and freedoms afforded to children. These rights include Right to life, freedom, opinion, expression, work, and education (Sudhakar,2021). However, several of these individuals lack the access to knowledge and understanding of these basic rights. In conjunction with financial difficulties, some children are forced to go and live on the streets. According to UNICEF, there were at least 100 million street children in the world in 2003 (“Street Children – Statistics, Their Lives and Why We Have to Care”). Around 4 to 8 lakhs of children live on streets in India (Wikipedia Contributors). As this is a large number, children do not have access to basic facilities such as resources and opportunities. Some children live on streets, whereas others work on streets and go back to their homes. Although they manage their lives on the streets, they face a lot of trouble by suffering through various difficulties.
Digging Deep
Given this premise, the students were curious to understand what rights mean to the children on the streets,and to examine the extent to which they can enjoy them. Hence, they decided to research the living conditions of children living on the street. As a part of it, they undertook two methodologies, out of which the first one was interviews. A set of questions were asked to homeless children around their locality, including their education, availability of basic resources like food, water, sanitation, a safe environment, etc. Later they did secondary research by going through articles, research papers and government documents, to collect further information on the topic.
Eye- Opening Learnings
The research turned out to be quite fruitful as the students could receive important insights about the children in the streets. In the primary research, they learned that some of these children go to government schools but do not understand many topics and subjects. Furthermore, they face multiple financial issues and hence use public toilets. Some of these children brush irregularly as they face problems with access to water. Moreover, they eat the same food everyday in meager quantities, putting their health and proper nutrition at threat. Their secondary research further supported these findings. Most of these children run away from their homes in order to escape unsafe conditions. The children in India who are forced to live and work on the streets lack the most basic resources, and face discrimination and abuse. First and foremost, they do not get enough food to eat.The food they receive is mostly from religious institutions like temples and some organizations that serve the homeless. Due to desperation, they often turn to crime, stealing food from stalls, and getting involved in gangs. Along with this emaciation, they lack access to basic medical care, and safe and sanitary shelter which protects from bad weather and diseases, which aggravates health issues. Due to their environment, they also have easy access to drugs which leads to some of them abusing substances. Since they are forced to work most of the time during the day, they are unable to get a quality education. Homeless children are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and violence. They are afraid to save money due to fear of it being stolen. They also do not have access to better workplaces once they grow up and most children are forced into child labour and marriage.
Conclusion: Abandoned Rights
Through the research, the student understood the challenges children living on the street face on a day to day basis. Their study showed that since they lack access to basic medical care and sanitation, they are exposed to severe weather, which increases their risk of developing health issues. Due to being coerced into underage work and marriage, they suffer abuse and exploitation. They lack access to improved living conditions and workplaces that are clean and safe. Above all they also lack access to education, which reduces their chances of breaking this cycle of homelessness.
A majority of street children flee their homes because of the unsafe environment there. They hope to find a better life in the streets yet face more issues. This situation further pushes them away from becoming empowered and escaping the issues they are seeking refuge from. The basic child rights include the right to childhood, education, survival and many more. Therefore, social rights are very important for these children, and they require more protection of their rights.
References
- https://www.goeco.org/article/street-children-of-india
- https://www.railwaychildren.org.uk/blog/2021/08/street-children-in-india/
- http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/2378/Street-Children-Human-Rights-A-Socio-Legal-Issue-In-India.html#:~:text=Economic%20and%20social%20rights%20are,adoption%20of%20affirmative%20protective%20measures.
- https://www.lawnn.com/childrens-rights/
- “Street Children – Statistics, Their Lives and Why We Have to Care.” Breakthrough, 25 Oct. 2018, https://inbreakthrough.org/street-children-statistics-lives/#:~:text=In%201994%2C%20UNICEF%20estimated%20that,street%20children%20in%20Delhi%20alone., Accessed 1 July 2022.
- Wikipedia Contributors. “Street Children in India.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_children_in_India#:~:text=Overall%2C%20estimates%20for%20the%20total,range%20from%20400%2C000%20to%20800%2C000 , Accessed 1 July 2022.
- Sudhakar. “Child Rights in India | Right to Education and Health | Smile Foundation.” Smilefoundationindia.org, Smile Foundation, 19 Feb. 2021, https://www.smilefoundationindia.org/child_rights.html., Accessed 29 June 2022.