One of the biggest problems that the children living on platforms of railway stations across the Capital face is harassment by passengers and station staff, reveals a report complied by two non-profit organisations working for street children - CHETNA and Plan India.
In the report, the children have shared their experience of living on platforms every day, the problems they face, and how they think they can get out of these. This is an exercise to suggest ways of rehabilitation of children to the government. A pilot project to rehabilitate the children living on railway platforms is already being run across 20 stations in India.
According to the report, around 200 children live at major railway stations like New Delhi and Nizamuddin. Out of them, around 180 children take intoxicants. Thirty-five out of the total sleep on platforms, while others either sleep by the roadside or in some nearby night shelters. Most of the children, left with no other option to earn their daily bread, are forced into rag-picking. Surender, a 17-year-old boy who lives on platform, said, “My parents used to abuse me and behave badly. So I left home around five years ago. Children living on platforms and streets have to face a lot of problems. Everyone abuses us; everyone thinks we are criminals. Last week, a man got me arrested thinking that I stole his money. The constable whom he approached also believed him and took me to the police station. It was only after some people from an NGO intervened that I was let off.” The NGOs are now planning to send the report to the government so that they can help create better living conditions for these children.
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“This report or “plan of action” compiled by the children in association with CHETNA and Plan India is probably the first such initiative by street children in India. We want to take this plan to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and seek an appointment from Maneka Gandhi,” said Sanjay, founder, CHETNA.