Salaam Baalak Trust - working for street children

Introduction

Street children are deprived of protective environment of family. Article 20 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right of such children who cannot be looked after by their own family to special care. The Government of India also accorded serious attention to provide protective environment of children in need of care including street children through enactment of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and subsequent amendments to the Act. The Act in its Section 37 provides for establishment of shelter homes for children in need of care and protection. Significance of shelter homes and residential centres for street children is immense, given the exploitative, violent and hostile situations they face in cities. Shelter homes or residential centres act as safety nets protecting street children from sexual abuse and exploitation, physical violence and child labour.
SBT Residential Centres are Unique
Unlike orphanages, shelter homes and other child care institutions, full-care and short stay residential homes provide an enabling environment to children to realize their potential to the fullest. An attempt is made to educate and help children develop intellectually at these centres. However, children who are not inclined towards academics are not pushed towards a definite career path. Children are provided opportunities to develop their hidden talents and skills. They are encouraged to pursue dance, puppetry, acting, painting and photography as well.
DMRC Children Home for Boys
DMRC Children’s Home was established as part of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s corporate social responsibility. The home on an average houses 125 boys from the age of five to below 18 years. The centre provides shelter, education, clothing, food and all needed amenities to children rescued from streets.
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In the reporting period, the centre already housed 130 children and a total of new 114 new children were admitted to the centre. Of these a total of 105 children were restored, transferred and released on the orders of the Child Welfare Committee. As on March 21, 2018, the centre housed a total of 139 children.
Activities and Progress Update
Education
Laying adequate emphasis on the role of education to develop personality and character of children, the centre makes all efforts to link children to education. The education programme at the centre is pliable as it is based on the individual needs of children. Depending on their existing knowledge and preparedness children are provided education through different modes including non-formal education (NFE), open school, and formal education.
During the reporting period a total of 60 children have been provided formal education. A total of 10 boys have been transitioned from NFE programme to formal education. New enrolment of 37 children has been made in schools. Apart from this, 18 children are getting education through distance learning in NIOS. All new children have been covered under NFE program. Approximately 250 children have benefitted through NFE classes.

Food and Nutrition

The three balanced meals provided to children residing at the centre in addition to an evening snacks. The diet entails a well-balanced nutritious diet. The school going children get nutritious lunch boxes packed for their schools. Seasonal fresh fruits are part of the evening snacks. Special diets are also been provided to sick children and the boys who are into sport activities. On an average food and nutrition services are provided to a total of 130-140 children at the centre.
Health
Regular medical check- ups of children are done at the centre. A full time doctor employed with SBT comes regularly to conduct medical check-ups. The centre has two medical social workers to take care of the children’s medical needs and emergency cases. Apart from the health check-ups, specialised care is provided to children. In the reporting period a number of children were provided specialised care. (For details See Table)

Table 1: Children Provided Specialised Medical Care
Treatment services
No of children
Neuro and seizure disorder
07
Psychological/Psychiatric Treatment
07
Thalassemia
01
Asthma
03
Hepatitis B
01
Speech Therapy
02
Physically Impaired
01
Spinal Problem
01
Tuberculosis
01
Total
24 children
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Extra-curricular Activities
Children are engaged in various activities like football, cricket, soccer and squash. A sports teacher at the centre channelises children’s energy in lots of indoor and outdoor activities. Children also attend swimming and karate classes and participate in various local and inter-organizational games & sports competitions. Children’s involvement in extra-curricular activities ensures their all-round development. (For Details See Table Below)
Table 2: Children Engaged in Extra-curricular Activities*
Extra-curricular Activities
No of Children
Dance Class
50
Library Facility
300
Theatre Class
35
Squash
3
Athlete
2
Football
6
Kick Boxing
2
*These numbers are not mutually exclusive, a child can opt for more than one extracurricular activities.
Skill development
To prepare adolescents for an adult life, they are linked to skill development and vocational training courses. Children at DMRC are provided theatre and dance classes. Theatre is one of the primary ways children learn about life: about actions and consequences, about customs and beliefs, about others and themselves. Apart from this, in house classes for electrical and electronic course are provided to children. Also children are given computer training. (For Details See Table)
Table 3: Skill Development and Vocational Training
Vocational training and Skill Development Courses
Number of children
In-house training (Electrical and Electronic)
100
City Walk Training
4
Dance Training
1
Art and Craft (Prabhat Resource Centre)
5
Cooking & Baking
3
Hospitality
1
Industrial Training Institute
1
Photography
1
General Duty Assistant
1
Facility Care & Management
3
Marketing & Personality Development
2
Total
122

Rehabilitation and Job Placement

Rehabilitation is an ongoing process at the centre. The adolescent boys are prepared for an adult life through engaging them in education, vocational training, and dance and sports classes. A career counselor guides them to opt for suitable vocational training courses. Many children also excel in theatre & dance and opt them as a career option. In the reporting period, DMRC CHB has successfully rehabilitated 12 children with job placements.
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Festival celebration

Event and festival celebration is one of favorite activities of the children at the centre. These celebrations inculcate cultural and secular values among children. All children are very happy and energized during these celebrations. Children celebrated Lohri, Diwali, Christmas, New Year, Republic Day and Holi in the reporting period.
Trips and Tours
Curiosity and exploration is inherent in children. Through the means of recreation and excursions the children are helped to develop the power of observations, exploration, judgment and drawing inferences, and to develop the co-operative attitude and leadership skills in them. Children have been to various exposure visits during the reporting period.
Challenges
Centre faces following challenges in dealing with children on a regular basis.
1. Rehabilitation and restoration of children with special needs is a problem as there is a dearth of good aftercare organizations for such children. Establishing communication channels with children suffering from speech and hearing disabilities also requires special skills and efforts on the part of the staff and thus, poses a challenge.
2. Rehabilitation of juvenile in conflict with law also remains a challenge. These children who were once involved in criminal activities take time to adjust to a normal life.
3. Presence of behavioral issues due to substance use among children also creates problems. Addressing these issues by the counsellor and centre team takes a lot of psychological effort.
Future Plan

The DMRC CHB team has envisaged a clear future plan with set targets to further improve the outreach and quality of services at the centre.
To overcome the existing challenges
New admission of 10 children in regular school
Admission of 10 children in vocational training
Admission of two special children in Lady Noyce School
Making new strategies to prevent substance use
Networking to rehabilitate and better management of speech and hearing impaired child

Significant Change Story

A child named Vinod got admitted by an unknown person in very ill condition with severe bed sore and wounds in anal passage at LNJP Hospital. The child was then presented to CWC after discharge by Police and was brought to DMRC for further care. The doctor at the centre suggested regular dressing for bed sore and anal wounds in unconscious state as child was acutely malnourished. Though the dressing was done in-house but it was to be done under proper medical supervision. At the centre the child was provide proper medical care, dressing and highly nutritious diet. Child was then referred to GB Pant Hospital by LNJP for mental health analysis as he was passing stool and urine at bed only. After the diagnosis at GB Pant Hospital, doctor changed the drug regime and advised for high protein diet for him and recommended an exercise therapy for a week. After a week’s treatment, in-house doctor conducted a complete full body check-up and saw sign of recovery and normalcy. Presently, the child is on medication and recovering fast.
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• Impact Assessment (PDF)
  

Introduction

With the valuable funds from the donor a girl named Kajal residing in Arushi Children’s Home of Salaam Baalak Trust has been supported. At the Home Kajal has bene able to access education, health, medical and other facilities. The caring and nurturing environment provided at the home has brought in visible positive changes in Kajal.

Family Background

Kajal hails from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. She is 16 years old. Her date of birth is  June 20, 2002. She has been living in Arushi since 2009. Her family occupation is Farming. Both of her parents are HIV positive, thus they were incapacitated to look after her. According to Kajal, her family was not well off and could not support her education and higher studies. This was the reason she decided to leave her home and she was happy that she came under the protective ambit of Arushi Children’s Home.

Academic and Overall Progress

In spite of very trying personal times (she lost her father to HIV and her mother is very critical), Kajal continued her good performance in class, she scored 60 percent in Class 9. She is currently studying in Class 10in Rotary public school.

Kajal is a very creative girl. She plays keyboard and is good at drawing and dancing. She has participated in SBT’s annual play.She has good command over English and often participates in various SBT plays and activities. She now intends to learn swimming and Arushi team is in the process of finding swimming classes for her.

Kajal is a very confident and highly ambitious girl. She strives to learn new skills constantly.She aims to work in Multinational Company.

Future Plan

The team at Arushi is encouraging her to perform exceedingly well in her studies as she has the potential to do much better.

• Awards_received_by_SBT.pdf (PDF)
  

IntroductionWith the valuable grants of Select City Walk, Salaam Baalak Trust has brought a transformation in the lives of girls rescued from streets and difficult circumstances. Living in the child-friendly environment of Arushi residential centre, these girls have shown immense progress in academics and extra-curricular activities in the year 2017. The girls’ continued to improve their personalities and are excelling in various latent talent development and vocational training courses. Progress UpdateA detailed overall progress update of various activities and performance of girls is provided below.

Education

The girls at the residential centre are being supported through a pliable education programme to cater to individual needs of the girls. The different modes of education offered at the centre include formal schooling, non-formal education and open schooling. Teachers with the support of the volunteers took regular classes for children. The academic performance of each child at the centre is mapped by the in-house teachers. Additionally a monthly education report is being sent to the Executive Council to show the progress of the children.

To improve children’s general knowledge quiz and debates were organised. Career counseling workshops were conducted to streamline children’s higher education choices and guide them on the possible avenues for vocational training. The girls who are pursuing higher studies secured more than 80% in Class 12.

Food and Nutrition

The girls were provided three hot cooked and nutritious meals at the centre. Elder girls were involved in preparation of evening nutrition which includes buying groceries (under staff assistance) along with monitoring and distribution of utensils to create a sense of responsibility and discipline. Further, sessions were organised on the importance of choosing nutritious food for school tiffin. These sessions improved girls’ understanding of food, nutrition and balanced diet and resulted in visible changes in their dietary behavior.   

Health

To ensure holistic understanding of health and its components, awareness sessions on good hygiene and sanitation practices including tooth cleaning and hand wash techniques were held. Dental check-ups and tetanus vaccination camps were organised at the centre to cover all children. Two dental camps and one eye camp was organised for children.

Skill Development and Job Placement

The girls who are above 18 and/or have passed Class 10 opt for vocational training. Presently the girls are pursuing beauty culture training, guitar classes, piano classes, classical singing and dancing, sketching classes, photoshop editing, English speaking classes

Rehabilitation

In the last year three a number have been rehabilitated. Many of them are pursuing higher studies and have successfully stepped into adult life. The centre team organised a lunch party for the rehabilitated girls to bid them farewell and assure them of extended support from the team. The staff members also ensure regular follow up of the children. The details of various girls who have been rehabilitated are as follows.

• Roma, Jyoti, Yashmin and Rani are pursuing higher studies in reputed universities.
• Salma was rehabilitated on 25/11/2017. She working a beautician in a reputed parlor.
• Poornima was rehabilitated on 25/11/2017. She working a beautician in a reputed parlor.
• Surbhi was rehabilitated on 21/4/2017. She working as a store helper in a retail shop.
• Preeti was rehabilitated on 21/4/2017. She working a peer educator in one of SBT’s day care centres.
• Ruhi was rehabilitated on 28/8/2017. She a tour guide in SBT’s City Walk programme.

Extra-Curricular Activities and Celebrations

The children engaged in following extracurricular activities in the last year.

• Monthly birthday celebration  of the girls
• Girls went for different activities during the summer camp
• Movie outings
• Girls celebrated all the festivals with great fun and enthusiasm. 
• Girls went to Sattal, Uttarakhand for a trip. The girls went for natural trails and participated in various life skill sessions.  
• The girls  visit an old age home once in 15 days.
• 15 girls are going for football classes arranged by bank of America.
• 5 girls  have been to Ranikhet for fun camp with Parvah Team . 

Challenges

While working with the girls rescued from streets and managing the centre, the team faces the following challenges.

• Communication gap with the Child Welfare Committee overseeing the enrollment and transfer of girls rescued to residential centres. Detailed legal discussions on provisions on various juvenile legislations is done to ensure that the rights of the girls rescued are protected and they get an opportunity to stay in safe shelter home.
• In the context of education of girls, many girls find it difficult to cope up with the curriculum of age appropriate classes for this the team is planning to provide proper bridge course to these girls.
• Dealing with the needs of special children. Since most of the staff members are unaware about the needs.

Future Plans

The centre team has envisioned following plans to improve the functioning of the centre.

Introduction

Children living and working on the streets form an invisible part of the urban landscape. Surviving on streets many of these children are exposed to different forms of abuse including physical, psychological and sexual and also suffer from malnutrition and other communicable diseases. The vulnerabilities of street children intensify in case of girls who grapple with challenges of sexual abuse, physical insecurities and in worst cases forced prostitution. Therefore, these children especially girls need immediate care and protection.

In an attempt to rescue girls from streets and provide them a secure and thriving environment, Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT) provides a comprehensive package of services ranging from shelter, food, medical, education to rescue and restoration to family. With an explicit recognition ofaccentuated security and safety concernsin case of girls, SBThas channelized efforts to provide specialised residential care and other services to girls. One of the first steps of SBT in this direction was establishment of Arushi shelter home/residential centre for girls in Gurgaon.

The shelter home is specially designed to cater to all aspects of a child-friendly home, ventilation, amphitheatre, open space for playing, classrooms and dormitories. Arushi is an initiative to offer 24 hour shelter to girls between the age of 5 years to 18 years living and working on the streets. To enable young girls at the threshold of adult life, their vocational training and rehabilitation becomes an integral programme component at Arushi.

ProjectGoal and Objectives

Against this backdrop, the present project was envisaged and is being executed to achieve following broad goal and specific objectives.

Goal: Providing a safe and child-first environment to girl children from the street for their overall development and to empower them as responsible citizens of the country.

Objectives and activities: 

• Providing a safe and secured space for children
• Providing education and recreation
• Restoration and repatriation to family
• Health and nutritional care
• Psychological counselling
• Vocational training and skill development
• Job placement and rehabilitation programme

Progress Update

In tandem with above mentioned objectives, following activities were conducted to meet the stated project targets during the reporting period March 1-August 31, 2016. 

Education

1. Enrolled 40 children in formal schools
2. Provide non-formal education to 40 children, and of these 75 percent would be motivated to join formal schools

Academic and intellectual development of children, positive exposure towards society and preparation of career goals

1. A total of 36 girls were enrolled in the formal education out of which 29 girls are going to schools and nine in NIOS in the reporting period.
2. A total of six children successfully made a shift from non-formal education to regular schooling. Three new admissions were made to regular schools.
3. Non-formal education is being provided to 26 girls. They are being prepared to join the formal schooling system.

1. Instilling confidence among girls for English speaking and use of correct grammar remains a challenge. Many girls also face difficulties in mathematics. The team is working hard to motivate girls to improve their mathematical capacities.
2. Shortage of teaching staff to tackle the multiple academic needs of children is another issue with the team is grappling.

Food and nutrition

1. Provide three hot cooked meal for every girl
2. Special nutrition for children as prescribed by doctor

Anthropometric measures (height, weight, body weight)

Health indicators of physical well-being

1. Three hot cooked meals are provided to all the girls.
2. Besides that we also provide evening nutrition to girls on daily basis and the team also work towards provision of healthy food and snacks as evening nutrition in donation.
3. Special nutrition is provided to the children who are unwell.
4. Most of the girls in the centre are growing normally with increments in height and weight as per recommended growth standards.
5. A total of 221 children were provided meals at the centre.

Physical health care

1. Medical check-up of children twice a month
2. Medical investigation in within 15 days of registration and repeated after 6 months
3. Monthly sessions with counsellors

Physical growth as per ICMR standards

Reduction in malnutrition

Sound physical and mental health

1. Medical check up of children is conducted two to three times a month.
2. Medical investigation is done within 15 days of registration of a child in the centre and a health performa is regularly filled and maintained.
3. Regular mental health and life skill sessions are taken at group and individual levels.
4. In the reporting period through health check-ups of 80 girls was done.
5. The team is not ableto avail support from reputed hospitals in Gurgaon. For instance, we did not get concession for speech therapy of our girl from MedantaMedicity.

Repatriation

1. Repatriation of 10 children (subject to tracing of families and CWC orders)
2. Regular follow-up of repatriated children
3. Developing strong networking linkages and strengthen advocacy

Realisation of children’s right to stay with family in a safe and secure environment

1. The team repatriated 38 girls from March 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017 with due permission from CWC.
2. The team established strong networking ties with all legal stakeholders.
3. The team also organised quarterly stakeholder meetingsto further strengthen these networks.

Psychosocial support

1. Individual supportive session – all children to be covered within a quarter
2. Group sessions with children twice a month

Children’s attitude towards life become positive by helping them overcome their past trauma

1. Every child has been covered under individual psychological sessions were conducted.
2. Individual sessions- helped children cope with daily stressors.
3. Groupgroup sessions were also organised.These sessions encouraged girls to strengthen self-understanding and engage in introspection. The session helped children to share their ideas and thoughts and boosted their self-confidence.
4. Sometimes, girls showed little or no interest in the sessions and that in turn affected the quality of the sessions. During group sessions, small girls often remained distracted and engaging them was also a challenge.

Life skill education

1. Regular life skill sessions with children (in groups of 10-12 children and twice a month)

Increased and improved decision making power, problem solving skills and life skills, critical thinking among children

1. Regular life skill sessions were conducted in the reporting period.
2. These sessions have made the girls adept in daily skills. Together they were able to explore their personalities and developed problem solving capabilities.
3. Girls sometimes find life skill education sessions monotonous. Therefore, the life skill educator tried tomake these sessions more interesting.

Vocational training

1. Enrol 20 children in vocational training
2. Enrol children above 11 years in computer classes

Making young girls self-reliant

Mainstream and empower them as respectable citizens of society

1. 23 girls have been enrolled in vocational training in the reporting period.
2. Computer classes are also being offered to many children in the centre.
3. There is a dearth of government institute providing vocational training in Gurgaon.
4. The team faces logistical issues in sending girls to these institutes.

Future Plan

In the remaining reporting period, the team plans to build upon English and mathematical skills of the girls. The project team will also make efforts to network with vocational and skill training institutions in Gurgaon and nearby areas. Steps will also be taken to modify the structure of life skill education sessions. On the whole, the team would aim to improve project outcomes and bring substantial differences in the lives of the children being supported under the project.

Links:

• celebrating 30 years
• Founder Trustee - Sanjoy Roy