Young children who have made suburban railway platforms their home are often hidden from scurrying commuters’ sight, but each of them has a story to tell. Ankit Sharma (14) and his friend Vishal Patel (15) first landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus from Benares. They had run away from home with the hope of improving their financial condition. “My father is the sole bread winner in our family of five and when he fell sick, life became very tough for us. It was then that Vishal and I decided to find a job in Mumbai,” says Ankit.
For Mohanranga Manohar (14), however, the reason for coming to Mumbai from Chennai was different. His father had run away when he was just five, and an older sister was married. Unable to bear the financial burden, his mother sent him to join a group, which he later realised, trained children in pick-pocketing. Manohar was caught by police on many occasions, beaten up and scolded. Fed up, he decided to run away from home. He first landed in Gujarat and then in Mumbai.
Vishal, Ankit and Mohanranga were found by a team from the NGO Samatol Foundation, which brought them to their shelter at Thane. Vijay Ramchandra Jadhav runs Samatol for the upliftment and rehabilitation of runaway children. “Every year, 10 lakh boys, aged between 8 and 15 years run away from home and land up in Mumbai. Most of them come by train. However, in the absence of guidance or money, these children end up getting exploited and are used as cheap labour. They develop medical conditions which go untreated, and even develop vices,” he says.
If the organisation cannot locate the children’s relatives, they continue to stay at the shelter till they are old enough to be on their own. Since its inception in 2006, Samatol has impacted the lives of over 9,000 children.
The children run away from their homes due to various psychological or socio-economic reasons. “Trafficking is another major reason why children end up at stations. City attractions and job prospects give children the false impression that Mumbai is a place to enjoy and earn money,” says Mr. Jadhav.
How Samatol works
Every letter in Samatol stands for something. ‘Sa’ is for samata or equality; ‘Ma’ is for mamta or affection, ‘To’ for tohfa or gift and and ‘L’ for lakshya, or goal.
The volunteers of Samatol, who work with them full-time, scan the platforms at CST, Dadar, Kurla, Thane and Kalyan as also Pune and Bhusaval, and identify runaway children between 5 and 15 years of age. They create a bond with them and try and earn their trust.
“Identifying a lost or runaway child on a railway platform is easy, but getting their custody is difficult. In some cases, the children are so used to living independently that they are not ready to come with us. They do not wish to be confined again,” says Ranjana Rajput, a senior volunteer and counsellor with Samatol.
The volunteers have to initially gain their trust and convince them about the work of the Foundation. The child is then registered at the nearest Railway police station and taken for a medical examination to an allocated government hospital. While all this is taking place, the volunteers try and trace the child’s family.
The volunteers decide whether to keep the child in a temporary shelter, in a government-run observation home or at the Foundation’s shelter near Daddoji Konddev stadium, Thane. “Around 15 children can be accommodated in our shelter. The children are given food and clothes while the counsellors find out why they have left home,” says Lata Wankhede, another senior volunteer.
Rehabilitation
Children who have developed an addiction or repeatedly run away from home are enrolled in a 45-day Swami Vivekananda Manaparivarta Kendra rehabilitation camp at Samatol’s land in Kalyan, where professionally-trained counsellors work with them. In the course of discussions, the children reveal their family details, which are conveyed to the contact person of the respective State who works for Samatol. Once the child’s family is traced, they are asked to attend a farewell ceremony, held on the last day of the camp. Following the ceremony, the families take their children home.
“Samatol monitors the child’s welfare even after he is reunited with the family. If we find that a child is not willing to go back home, we provide vocational training and a hostel facility in his State,” says Ganesh Sathe, another volunteer.
Future plans
Samatol tries to raise awareness on children’s’ rights and securities through ‘Samatol Express’, a two-and-a-half hour drama that is held at theatres. “So far 10 such dramas have been staged in different parts of Mumbai. The drama, performed by 25 artistes, depicts how a child runs away from home and the difficulties he faces thereafter,” says Mr. Jadhav.
Samatol is now looking at opening child welfare committees at every station in Maharashtra with the aim of speed up the reuniting process. There is also a plan to open vocational training centres. “We wish to collaborate with other NGOs in order to cover a wider area, and strive to make all related governmental organisations collaborate for this cause,” he says.
Samatol chiefly relies on individual donations, and has 35 paid volunteers. “We want as many people as possible to join in our ‘child-friendly movement’ and become a Samatol mitra (friend)”. The Foundation accepts donations in both cash and kind.
Mr. Jadhav’s vision is “to create a child-friendly society in the entire country where children can grow in the protective hands of their own State.” As to what makes him carry on, he says it is “The tears of joy on the faces of reunited families.”
