Street Children in India
With more than 1.13 billion people, India is the second most populous country in the world. Despite the nation's high economic growth during the past decade, widespread poverty remains one of India's biggest problems to date. 19.3% of the population earns less than the government-specified 0.40$/day poverty threshold.
Due to factors such as increasing rural-urban migration and dire economic circumstances, India has the largest number of street children worldwide. While there are no recently published statistics, UNICEF reported that the number of street children in India was as high as 18 million in 2000. Alone in the city of Bombay, 250,000 children are believed to live in railway stations or on the streets.
Street
children are subject to hunger, malnutrition, neglect, physical and
sexual abuse and exploitation, violence, poverty, substance abuse and
addiction, theft and police brutality. They have virtually no rights
and are systematically denied access to education and adequate health care as a result of structural barriers and discrimination. Many of
them have never experienced and will never know what it means to have
a shelter and loving family to come home to.
Although the term street children is broad and fairly ambiguous, it tends to be used as a shorthand for children who live in poverty and are exposed to life on the streets in one way or the other. UNICEF defines "street children" as children who live on the streets alone or with their families, or children who spend most of their time on the streets to fend for themselves (but return home on a regular basis). The reasons that children end up living and working on the streets are plentiful: some come from impoverished, homeless families, others fled violent, abusive home situations, still others have homes but beg or work on the streets to contribute to the household income. Despite the fact that the dominant image of street children is that of an orphan, all alone in the world, the reality of the situation is that the majority of street children are not orphans, although many have only one parent, come from broken homes, or may have severed ties with their families. Irrespective of the exact causes and nature of their affiliations with the street, all are classified as "street children." The collective (and growing) presence of these children in public places such as parks, railway stations, traffic intersections, and sidewalks increasingly constitutes the face of many urban centers in India.
In
order to make a living, street children in India take up a broad range
of occupations, including begging, rag picking, sex work, theft or petty
crime, shoe shining, "coolie" work (luggage hauler), sweatshop work,
mechanic work, and flower, snack, or trinket selling. Since they depend on the
money they earn themselves, they rarely have the time or resources
to go to school and obtain an education. The fact that they grow up
illiterate inhibits their chances of finding adequately paid employment
as adults and results in a vicious cycle that forces them to spend the
rest of their lives on the streets.
Communities of Origin
Many of the street children in our education outreach program belong to a Denotified Tribe known as Waghri. The Waghris are an itinerant adivasi community from northeast Gujarat and southern Rajasthan. Historically, members of the Waghri caste have been merchants, and Waghri migrants in the urban context often earn a regular living trading in used clothing. Like most indigenous adivasi communities, they continue to face social exclusion and prejudice throughout India, however, the Waghris are particularly marginalized because they were classified as a Criminal Tribe under the Criminal Tribes Act in 1871. The Waghri caste is spoken of with fear and derision, and suffers from an extremely poor reputation. They are characterized as dangerous, untrustworthy people, and allowing a Waghri into one's home is considered unthinkable - the women who go door-to-door buying and selling clothes are believed to be merely 'casing the joint' for a return visit by their husbands, who are assumed to be formidable criminals. The materiality of their trade further degrades their social standing, as unwanted, disintegrating old clothing can be understood as jutha, or polluted leftovers, and dealing in waste is considered a poor reflection of one's moral character. With literacy rates estimated below 20% and low value placed on formal education, a lack of legal documents, constant health problems exacerbated by unwillingness and/or inability to avail themselves of medical services, substance abuse, and further compounded by the distinctive, often self-isolating Waghri caste subculture, the people of the Waghri slum are widely considered uneducated, ignorant, and culturally "backward" among other spheres of society.There are various unaddressed needs specific to the Waghri community, as the label of "criminal tribe," though recently revoked, continues to circumscribe the lives of the individuals with whom we work, and the family members of the girls in the program had many stories to tell about harassment from the police, abuse from fellow slum inhabitants, drives by municipalities that demolish their huts, and discrimination by government officials, health care workers, and school administrators.
Sources
Norris, Lucy. (2004) "Shedding Skins: The Materiality of Divestment in India." Journal of Material Culture. Vol 9(1): 59-71.Koli, Mme. Personal interview. 10 January 2007.
O'Kane, Claire. (2003) "Street and Working Children's Participation in Programming for their Rights." Children, Youth, and Environments. Vol 13(1).
