Rescuing 9000 Children From the Streets in India

Dear All,

Today’s children are the citiczens of tomorrow. Since they create the world of tomorrow, they are at the heart of social development. The future depends on how children prepare themselves to enter into the world of education and skill development. Children who are healthy, well-fed and educated grow up to be productive, innovative workers and responsible adults. In contrast, hundreds of children are deprived of age appropriate care and protection across the country and their tomorrow is blur due to the social, cultural, political imbalance and other factors. Many of such children ran away from home and land on the street corners of Bangalore and most of them have done so because they were rejected, beaten or sexually abused. Tragically, their homelessness can lead to further abuse through exploitative child labor and prostitution and many more on the streets. Not only abused or runaway children encounter issues associated with material security, but also leave them emotionally scarred. Many of the abused children are traumatized. To aggravate matters, children often feel guilty and blame themselves for their mistreatment. Such an attitude can take years to recover even in the most loving environments: on the streets it may never heal. Considering the plight of such children, BOSCO has requested the support system through Global giving to rescue and mainstream such vulnerable children from the street /slums to the formal schooling/skill training and subsequently reunifying back to their homes or safer environments. 1830 such children were contacted and brought back to the mainstream in last three months. We place on record our heartfelt gratitude to all the donors’ immense concern and love towards this project and the continued assistance provided to realize this dream of BOSCO is immeasurable.

Yours Truly,

Fr. George P.S.

BOSCO Bangalore

1. Project highlights

• 1830 children (1581 boys 249 Girls) who would otherwise have ended up their lives at street corners were rescued through the community empowered street presence strategy during last 3 months.
• Out of 1830 children contacted, 1345(73%) of them reintegrated back home after rooting out of the negative impact of the street life and building their resilience through psycho social interventions and counselling services.
• 396 children were produced either before Child Welfare Committee (judicial magistrate to deal with the children cases) or Juvenile Justice Board abiding Indian law and juvenile justice system.
• 89 children out of 1830 contacted currently make use the centre facilities in which 48 street children were re enrolled this academic year back to the formal schooling, 25 to the bridge education and 16 to vocational training.
• 8 street youth admitted earlier to the vocational training course completed their training and are placed in various shops/companies for jobs.
• One girl child who was an inmate of Vatsalya Bhavan who underwent advanced computer training in BOSCO Mane was selected in the Job fair organized by Empower Pragathi and Aircel+ on 6^th July 2014. She is the first girl job placed from the newly established girl’s home.
• 2346 parents/relatives were provided with counseling services which opened their eyes to the faulty system of upbringing their children and the possible ways of overcoming such problems in the future.
• 107 children were provided with medical assistance from the centre: 02 were admitted in the hospital as inpatients, 21 were referred to the Outpatient Department and 84 were checked and provided simple treatments from the centre . Many of the children rescued by BOSCO were physically, emotionally and mentally sick. Coming from very poor families or having spent time on the street, they are often malnourished and were living in adverse conditions. Additionally many of the children rescued have suffered some kind of abuse either at home, where they worked or on the street.       Due to the inaccessibility to health care and lack of care provided to them in their own respective families, their sickness was not handled properly and BOSCO had to look into the health issues of these children in detail after they were rescued.
• A child assistance centre to help and rescue runaway children was officially inaugurated at the Bangalore City railway station platform number 4 on 9^th July abiding Government standard operating procedures and NCPCR guidelines in protecting and safeguarding the rights of children at the railway platforms. A fresh children study to know the inflow of children to the city railway station and thereby understand in detail the trends in the daily inflow of children to the city and related issues was released in the same venue by the Chairperson of theKarnataka child protection commission amidst other dignitaries. 514 children were rescued from the railway station in the first month after the inauguration of the Child assistance centre and the consecutive months too had more or less the same number

2. Beneficiary Desk:

Sumati was contacted by BOSCO six months ago from the city railway platform. Now she is all set to change her destiny. She is our proud child being the first girl job placed from the newly inaugurated girls centre of BOSCO Vatsalya Bahvan.

Sumati was all alone and battered when she was found in the railway station platform. She came to Bangalore in search of a job and BOSCO provided her more than she aspired. She was from a lower middle class family in Kolar District, 100 kilometers away from the city of Bangalore. Her father is a farmer and mother, a housewife. The family was a happy one until Sumati’s father lost all their property in litigation with his brother. This incident very adversely affected her father and he became addicted to alcohol. Gradually Sumati was forced to discontinue her studies due to her family’s financial constraints.

Sumathi at the age of 16 was forced to take up family responsibilities as she was the elder one and started going for daily wage work to meet the day to day requirements of the family. Her earnings were not sufficient to feed all the mouths which forced her to move to Bangalore city along with one of her friends in search of better jobs. After alighting from the train, within seconds, her friend disappeared and she was left alone at the railway station. When the girl child was sitting all alone at the railway station with a desperate look, BOSCO staff on duty at the railway platform noticed her and offered her all possible help. Knowing about the intention of her coming to Bangalore, she was informed about BOSCO’s vocational training centre for girls where computer and tailoring are taught. Along with it, BOSCO staffs made efforts to trace her family and informed her present condition to the family members. At the interest of the child, she was enrolled for skill training as she wanted to acquire a skill and to earn a rather decent salary to support her family. Counselor at BOSCO discovered Sumati’s exceptional interest in computer and she was enrolled for the computer training at Bosco Mane, one of the rehabilitation centers of BOSCO where advanced computer taught to interested and poor children of the locality. Though she had initial difficulties in grasping the lessons taught, especially copying with the English language, she gradually picked up with the help of instructors. During her stay in Vatsalya Bhavan BOSCO’s counselor could understand her behavioral problems which were of course a hindrance to her interpersonal relations and through many counseling sessions, the counselors helped her to come out of it. BOSCO staffs at the Vatsalya Bhavan accompanied Sumati in realizing her dream and stood with her in dealing with adversities.

 It was in the month of June that her long time dream was actualized. In the Job fair organized by Bosco in collaboration with Placement agencies like Aircel and Empower Pragati, she was selected out of many candidates interviewed and was immediately appointed as voice call processer in a call centre at Wilson Garden, Bangalore. The flame that kindled in her at the grooming stage from the Vatsalya Bhavan showed the way to the life. Sumathi is all set to change her destiny forever. “I know nothing would have happened without the help of BOSCO.I am really proud of what I am today. I got a good job and now earning good salary”, said Sumati with a deep smile that spreads her face with light. BOSCO is also equally delighted in her achievements and wishes her all the success in all her future endeavors.

Links:

• BOSCO was featured by The hindu: rescues 514 runaways in a month
• 1 in 4 Runaway Girls Victim of Abuse at Home
• Shelter for runaway children at City rly station