Introduction:

The problem of street children has become a world wide urban phenomenon. Most of the major cities of the world and particularly those of the developing countries do face the problem. UNICEF estimates the number of street-children around the world anywhere between 30 million and 100 million(*1). It also estimates that India has the world's largest of street-children. Although there are no reliable statistics available on the number of street-children in India, it is estimated that there are more than 500,000, street-children in the 10 major cities of India(*2). Some find this estimate very conservative and say that the cities like Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi alone must be having 100,000 children each. Any visitor to India, who is most likely to visit one of these major Indian cities will find large number of children on the streets. He will find them at traffic intersections, begging for money, trying to sell newspapers, magazines, flowers etc. He will find them at railway stations as shoe-shine boys or moving on the railway tracks searching for some recyclable bits of garbage. He will find them in groups of four or five with gunny-bags on their back, going from one garbage dump to another. Generally the impression one is likely to get is that of abundance of children. Since they seem to be poor and working and roaming all over the streets, the natural conclusion is that there are many many street-children in India, at least many more than the figures quoted above. It is therefore necessary to first decide who are the street-children that we are going to talk about.

Who Are The Street Children?

The difficulty in counting the number of street-children arises from two factors. The first is the practical difficulty in locating the street-children because they do not have any fixed place of residence. They are constantly on the move and wherever they are, that is their home. The second difficulty is more conceptual than practical. There are many children on the streets but they have different backgrounds and different reasons for being there. UNICEF makes two broad categories of these children, viz. ' the children on the streets ' and ' the children of the streets ' . The distinction is made on the basis of the family contact (or the lack of it) maintained by the children. The children on the streets are those children who spend most of their time on the streets because their parents live on the streets, i. e. in make-shift homes on pavements, or some such places. These children live with their parents, and work because their parents want them to work. They are cared for by their parents. In other words they have a family with its attendant obligations and benefits.

The children of the street are different. These children have very little or no contact with their parents; either by choice by force of circumstances. They do not have a home however inadequate, however shoddy or make-shift, nor do they have any meaningful links with their parents. They have severed the family ties and in some cases they were abandoned by their families.

UNICEF had commissioned some studies in about 8 to 10 major Indian cities. These studies have covered both, the children on the streets and the children of the streets. If we look at the proportion of the children on the streets to the children of the streets we find that it varies from place. Interestingly, the larger the city the lower the percentage of the ' children of the streets ' in the total population of street-children. A report of the UK committe for UNICEF studying the street-children in different Third-World countries states " about 75% of the street-children maintain contact with the family. They work on the street either under the supervision of their employers inside or outside the family or are in business for themselves. They spend most nights with their family contrary to popular belief " (*3). The data from the four Indian cities of variable sizes also supports the above observation.

Why Does A Child Take To Streets?

While talking about these children as distinct from others the first question that comes to mind is ' Why do these children leave their home?' Let us look at some of those reasons from the child's point of view.

(i) The case of Devaraj, the young rag-picker:

" My name is Devaraj and I am 14 years old. When I was studying in class III, my father died. We were four children and my mother was unable to provide for all four of us after my father's death. She was working as a domestic help. I and my brother dropped out of school and started working. One day I decided to runaway from the village and get a better job in Madras. I was caught by the police and put in a Remand Home ( a Government facility for such children ). I did not like the strict rules there and I ran away from there with three other boys. We started ragpicking and we are happy. I earn Rs. 15-25 a day and I am my own master. I do remember my mother but I don't want to go back home and have the same problems all over again. "

(ii) Babu, the Rickshaw puller:

Babu's father deserted the family on the pavements and married another woman. The poor mother found it extremely difficult to feed the three children, and chose another man to marry. The children's condition became even worse, and Babu used to have frequent fights with his step-father. He ran away and started working as a porter at the railway station. The police caught him. They remanded him for a month or so every time they got hold of him. Babu is on a constant move and has travelled from Madras to Bombay to Delhi and so on. He is now 16 and works as a Rickshaw puller. However he also has worked as a ragpicker many times before.

(iii) Bhola, an orphan boy:

Bhola was an orphan. His uncle used to look after him when he was a child. However he still remembers the beatings received from him. He dose not remember the name of his village. He was sold by his uncle at the age of 8. His owner used to make him work hard, give little food and used to beat him. He ran away from there and went to many places, supporting himself by begging, stealing and occasionally doing odd jobs. He is illiterate, physically weak, and addicted to smoking and drinking. For recreation he watches movies, plays cards with friends, and drinks. He works for 12 hours, sleeps on pavements and mainly earns his living through ragpicking. he is 14.

(iv)Shyam, a child with no dream:

Ten year old Sham Kumar came from a village near Calcutta. His mother died when he was young. After his mother's death his father started drinking, and used to beat Shyam and his sister.Under such conditions his sister also died. After her death, Shyam ran away from home. He started working in a restaurant, where he was poorly paid and, according to him, was sexually harassed. He ran away from there and started rag-picking. If he saves some money he watches a movie. He says that his only wish is to have a two meal a day.

We can read many such case histories. They may vary in details but all are essentially the same sad stories of breakdown of family and the resultant stress of extreme poverty leading to child's flight from the stress situation; in this case his family. The breakdown can be a result of extreme poverty, death of a parent mostly mother, arrival of a step-parent, alcoholic tather, and marital discord between parents. There are a few cases where children run away from home because of the lure of glamorous city life, which they so often see in the movies.

Life on Streets

The above case histories, being short, do not depict the trials and tribulations of the child's life on the streets. How does he get settled in the city life, what does he do in the beginning, and how does he survive till he rally starts earning? These are a few questions for which there are many answers but we can roughly chart out the course of the child's life as he enters the city, which follows roughlly the same pattern. The first thing they must do is to find something to eat. They must earn some money one way or the other. The easiest way is to beg for money. Almost all resort tO beggng at sometime or the other, but not everybody continues doing so. There are two very popular occupations of these children. The formost is rag-picking. Almost 90% of the street children are rag-pickers*4. Although the job is very dirty and exposes children to all kinds of health hazards, the children take to this occupation because in many way it satisfies their needs.

Firstly, children find is easy to get on to this occupation because the garbage is everywhere in the cities of India. The public gabage collection system is inadequate and as a result public garbage bins are always overflowing. There is no discipline among the citizens and the garbage is not sorted out at the source by those who throw it. The garbage dumps have a lot of recyclable trash which, if collected, has some market value. The children do this collection and sell the material to the dealers in such goods. We find many poor women also engaged in this activity.

Secondly, It is self-empIoyment. Nobody needs to employ you. You do not have to keep fixed hours or you do not have to satisfy anybody in terms of the output of your work. You are your own master and that is a great thing.

Thirdly, a does not require any special skills, nor does it need physical stregth. No special equipment is needed to start the busines. Other petty occupations, such as shoe-shining require some capital for buying the tools of the trade, for example a brush and box and a couple of polish tins etc. Also they require some amount of skill. A work of a porter for example, requires physical strength. If you are selling flowers or Newspapers initial investment is a must. Also, in all these occupations your income depends on the number of customers you are able to attract. Rag-picking is free of all these limitations. There is no problem in selling the collected material. There are regular dealers in trash material and they provide the ready market.

Fourthly, rag-picking is more or less a group activity. We hardly find a loner going about colleding garbage. We generally find them moving in groups of four of five. This also suits the children most as they like to live in groups. They have let behind their family, a primary group to which an individual belongs, so now they must find another group to give them a sense of belonging.

Fifthly, rag-picking is an mccupation which has no age or sex barriers. Both, girls and boys are seen engaged in this activity. On the other hand, working in restaurants or in public eating houses, in rather different. In India we do not find girls working in such places. Also, we do not find them engaged in shoe-shining.

Working in restaurants is also very common. However, very few stick to this job. For an onlooker like us, a job in a restaurant appears to be ideal. It provides better job conditions; there is no worry about food, because the leftover food is always there, and there is a possibility of getting night shelter in a secure place. Once the shop is closed many restaurants allow the children to sleep there. Thus the two major need of shelter and food are provided for on a rather secure basis. But the children do not seem to like working in restaurants. Firstly because there is hardly any freetime. There is strict discipline. The employers do exploit the children to their maximum employer or some adults in the neighbourhood. There is no group support. And most importantly there is no freedom.

The third type of occupation is that of selling something on the streets, in railway trains or at bus-stations etc. This also provides some opportunity for begging. Children can approach people for selling something and try to appeal for some money for food or tea etc.

Some children are employed by some gangs for begging. Some children also become a pawn in the hands of drug-traffickers, pick-poketers etc. It is said tht these gangs spot the lone children, offer them food, shelter and also show love and affection in the beginnig so as to get hold of the children. Once the child is their fold thy train these children in various anti-social activities such as begging stealing, pick-pocketing, and, worst of all drug-peddling.

Even so, the street-children in India are far more law-abidng than many other countries in the world. The do not carry guns or some such deadly weapons, they are generally not violent and the crimes they commit are petty offence.

Characteristic of Street-Children.

Problems Faced by the Street-Children