Protecting Rights of Street and Vulnerable Children (PRSVC) living families and communities through Education and Recreation

Protecting rights of Street and Vulnerable Children (PRSVC) living families and communities through Education and Recreation

Started in January 2018

Street children are those children who spend their life on the streets, conducting all the daily activities and earning a livelihood from working on the streets. Sometimes family members arrive together; sometimes children leave their family behind and try to create a new life for themselves. Many young people find themselves with nowhere to live, no one to care for them and unable to support themselves, so they live on the streets and have a high risk of exploitation. They are devoid of personal hygiene, nutrition and health facilities because of which street children are vulnerable to malnutrition, hunger and dreadful diseases. The city does not offer these children the appropriate development opportunities. Most of the children living on the street are physically and emotionally worn down by the need to support themselves at such a young age. There is a lack of a secure environment, a place where the children can call their own where various basic facilities are provided along with the presence of caring and protective adults, which will help children to develop themselves and gain the confidence to be a part of the mainstream. This activity aims to contribute to promote the integral development of these children

Over a period of several weeks (6 weeks to 3 months) our students receive 90 minutes lessons in computers and English each weekday – without a sound knowledge in these two areas, the chances of getting a good job in India are very low. Incorporated into the two main compartments are all sorts of issues that are a prerequisite for success in work and private life: social and intercultural skills, communication skills, sense of responsibility, discipline, determination, time management and much more. The Saturday program has the motto “Learn and Play”. Along with guest speakers and volunteers, we offer workshops, board games and a platform for networking and exchange of experience. Furthermore, there is more time for consultations in a relaxed atmosphere outside the regular school day.
All training programs are concluded with an oral, written and practical exam. For the participants of the 3-months course there is a unique opportunity to take this exam in front of representatives of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce and to obtain, if passed, an AHK Certificate of Vocational Training Category C.
Our particular interest is also the construction of a community consisting of students, volunteers and TESI employees. Sustainability can only be guaranteed through long-term, regular contact and exchange.

Street Children for this programme will be defined as:

“Street Working Children: children who spend all their time or most of their time working on the streets to provide income for their families or for themselves. These children have a home to return to and do not usually sleep on the streets.

Children of Street Living Families: children who live with their family on the streets.

The number of children living on the streets in cities has significantly increased in the last three decades predominantly as result of mass urban development caused by increasing industrialization and the decline of the rural and agricultural economies. It is estimated that nearly 18 million children in India live and survive on the streets without any kind of protection, assistance, or supervision. The un-planned urban development has festered in to an alarming rise of urban poverty in slum areas. Children are ending up on the streets because of uncertain circumstances, most prevalent being migration from rural areas along with their families.

Migration causes the breakdown of family units, leading loss of traditional safety nets and various other socio-economic consequences detrimental to the interests of children. Children often seek solace by escaping from stressful and abusive situations in their houses. They prefer to spend most of their time outside to avoid alcoholic parents along with other poverty-related factors which play their roles in choice children are forced to make. 90% of street children are working children with regular family contact. Many live with their families on the streets due to poverty and their parents’ unemployment. The remaining 10% are either working children with few family ties who view the streets as their homes or abandoned and neglected children with no family or relatives.

The term ‘Street Children’ refers to such children for who spend more time on the street than with their own families. The street becomes more like their real home. These children might not necessarily be homeless or without families, but they live in situations where there is no protection, supervision, or direction of responsible adult person. For these children the street also becomes a source of livelihood. Most street children are not orphans. Many are still in contact with their families and work on the streets to augment the household income. Many others have run away from homes. Children may go through their entire young life impoverished, abandoned, uneducated, and malnourished and discriminated against. For them life is a daily struggle and getting opportunities that are their rights are often missed out on. The majority of children on the streets are males which can be easily spotted as they stay in groups, whereas girls living on the streets are less visible and vulnerable.

Figure of children belonging to street living families in Pune city indicate that more than 50% of these children have never been enrolled into schools. The dropout rate among children is very high out of the ones enrolled in schools. Due to this the children are forced into taking menial jobs and become part of the unorganized workforce at an early stage of their lives. Most of the families drive small children to take up begging and petty jobs. This barely earns them a daily income of Rs 50 to Rs 90 in which they have to sustain expenditure of the whole family.

In the event of a death or divorce of a parents or cases where either of the parents are absconding or frequently absent in from the family the children are thrown into a completely different kind of role. From care receiver they are forced to become care givers for their siblings.

The living conditions of the street children depend on the facilities that are available in the area, such as food, shelter, protection and especially the job possibilities. They have no access to medical, educational and recreational resources and as a consequence their development is hampered. Due to many such reasons, street children are deprived of their basic child rights

In the proposed project, New Vision will work with children girls and boys in the age group of 6-18 years who live on the streets with families, these families are living on the streets or have created communities of their own on open government lands illegally and face threat of demolition all the time and which is not a safe space. There are specific communities whose core business are making and selling garland of lemon and Chilli* (NimbuMirchi), the whole family is involved in making that throughout the week and is sold on the weekend at traffic signals, shops, houses etc, mostly the selling are done by children, hence spending their entire day on the streets, which devoid them of education, proper nutrition and their development, while the other days of the week they are busy making these garlands. Parents prefer to make children work with them as the more they make the more money they get, they do not think of the hazards children faces while making or selling these garlands. These communities live in groups and are mostly from the same or nearby villages, but now have made city their home. When they are at home children just loiter around the community and get addicted to various addictions. It is observed that children as little as 6-7 years of age are addicted to tobacco, whitener and eating mud, seeing their parents gamble with cards, children also do the same.

Another community that organization plans to target is a very specific Sikh community, normally we will not find any poor or bagger sikh in India, but this community is specific and are into the manufacturing of Pans, used locally to make chapattis, the children never begs or sells on the streets, but they are involved in criminal activities like thefts, it is core in almost every family, they are habitual offenders.

They live in close knit communities and hardly mix-up with others, they never send their children to schools and everybody is involved only in their work. Women mostly never speak to strangers. Attempts to work them have failed time and again, in some areas they have started sending children to school but the percentage of such people is very less, however we need to try and work more hard with these people but we may not get expected results.