Under the scorching sun of the midday, amidst the vast cacophony of city life, there on the footpaths of Kolkata was sitting a nameless, homeless and hungry child in tattered clothes. His hairs were discolored from black to pale brown and the whole of his body showed his bones, grimly peeking through the tanned brown skin. Beside him, was another two children of the same condition; ill-nourished, and hungry. They could look at anything and snap it for a morsel for their hunger compelled them to do so.
A stray dog was there and was chewing on a stale piece of bread. The children looked at it. They knew what to do next.
This may be a very hypothetical scenario, but it is the grim and painful truth about the life of millions of street children across countries.
In India alone, there are about eight lakh street children, and their numbers are varying every day, depending upon the circumstances. Though pathetic, this situation needs to be rectified and on 2011, the biggest international Organization, The United Nations Organization have ratified 12th April as the International Day for Street Children to promote a louder voice to the thousands of street children all around the world and to voice for their rights; for their rights for a better future cannot be ignored.
Since then, the International Day for Street Children has been celebrated globally to commemorate and recognize humanity, dignity and defiance of street children in the unfathomable hardships they face in their social lives.
With regard to the history behind this day, it is not unknown to us. Since centuries we as civilized and privileged beings have witnessed the exploitation and the piteous state of the street children, and have only thrown a gesture of sympathy towards them, but never stopped to dedicate a day for them. Thus, the Consortium for Street Children (CSC) and its network of organizations each year from 6th April to 12th April celebrate the week for the Street Children, to bring welfare to them and fight for their rights. They have now created powerful links between organizations and policy makers throughout the globe who are toiling for the needs and rights of the street children and advocating towards capacity building of shared learning and research.
Though nearly all countries have entered into the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, they have the obligation to integrate those rights into their legal systems, however the rights of the street children are still rampantly violated in almost every country.
To make the Governments aware and diligent about the welfare of the street children, the United Nations in 2017 have released their General Comment No.21 to highlight the current state of the street children around the world and have directed steps to fight this menace. It had also led emphasis upon the various allied crimes related to the street children like beggary, child labour, trafficking, prostitution, child abuse and even smuggling. Based on this UN commentary the CFC have released the ‘four steps to equality’ campaign to make the Governments concerned about their moral and ethical duty for the protection of the rights of the Street children.
The following are the four steps:
- Step 1, to commit to equality and to recognize that the street children also have the same rights as everyone else and thus needs to be protected by the law of the land.
- Step 2, to protect every child of the streets from violence, abuse, delinquency and ensure that they have their required justice when their rights are infringed.
- Step 3, to provide access to the children to essential services like education and healthcare, so they can understand and realize their full potential.
- Step 4, to create new and advanced solutions and deliver specialized opportunities and services to cater to the unique needs, talents and challenges which the street children are going to face in their lives.
Apart from the United States, who have not ratified this day, all the other countries continue to strive to uplift the hopeless status of the street children and have implemented it in their legal codes. Actually no one can estimate the exact number of street children, but we all know that it is really massive in number. The root cause of this is essentially poverty and unemployment, but to a deeper prospect, broken homes, mental illness, abuse and domestic violence are also the ‘push’ factors for this.
In every city, we can find inequality. Inequality in economic strength, inequality in social status and inequality in the number of privileged children and the homeless ones. Often due to internal migration, or refugee crises, the whole family comes up to reside on the streets. While the ignorant parents have no idea of the welfare of their children, they tend to reproduce more and more, and finally when about half a dozen children are born to the parents, they leave them on the streets, and they become what we call as ‘street children’. They end up either in the wrong gangs of anti-socials or fall in the traps of drug abuse, crime, beggary or even death.
Obviously, the children are innocent and they are not to be blamed for their miserable conditions; rather we as the members of the ‘civil society’ are the ones who are to be collectively blamed for this as we have failed to fulfil our social responsibilities. We need to understand and realize that the children are not the ones who can be exploited and made to work and earn and eat. That doesn’t help to pull out the children from the dungeons of homelessness, but rather enhances it. The children need to learn and every child deserves access to education and adequate healthcare and get a chance to enjoy their childhood years.
It is our failure, but it’s never too late. With the optimistic support of numerous governments, NGOs and millions of responsible citizens who are doing their parts to fight for this cause and thus it’ll definitely lead to success.
In this current Covid-19 pandemic situation, we have witnessed the huge scale miseries in all the people of this planet. Needless to say, the innocent street children are also the silent victims of this. This pandemic has emphasized how the street children are far from the welfare schemes and justice in the country. Thus, in 2020 and 2021 the most important and pressing agenda of the International Day for Street Children, is to make sure that the deprived little ones in the streets do get access to essential food, clothing and medical facilities.
The pandemic has also forced a run down on many emergency service providers in this time, owing to paucity in economic strength; but due to this, the plight of the street children cannot be denied. Further, there is also the chance that the rescued and the rehabilitated children may have to finally return to the streets as such self-help organizations are on the verge of closing. Thus, it again vests us with the duty to epitomize the cause of the street children again and make sure that their future again does not fall on unreliable hands in the streets.
Furthermore, if we think of the post- pandemic situation, not only the street children are the ones to be the most vulnerable; but they are also going to be continually the ones to be deprived access to the essential needs of life and will be again targeted to violence, abuse and crime. Therefore, as the planet is trying to navigate a way through recovery from this pandemic, the street children’s conditions are likely to become horribly miserable again. In such a position the governments must be made aware of this, and they should look after and ensure that the street children and their families can at least get back to their lives and their children can again go back to education and access the other needs of life.
If we lay our emphasis towards India also, we can see that despite our rapid economic growth, due to ill-managed welfare schemes and the lack of supporting actions towards the street dwellers, it is a growing concern for us. Therefore, it is the concern of no one but us to come forward and give a voice to them and raise their issue. Though the number of street children are diminishing gradually, their rate of rehabilitation is slow and often we can find them returning to the streets or doing some frugal work.
12th April to commemorate as the International Day for the Street children, may be a ceremonial or symbolic day dedicated to the street children; but to uplift their cause, to help them and to educate them is the duty of the people is throughout the year. These children are our future and are expected to lead our country in the coming days, thus equality and education must be promoted and the schemes of the government must be made to percolate to these children, so that we don’t have any street children in the future.
They are like a scar or a subtle mock on what we call as our developments which speaks that actually we aren’t developed, because we have failed to save the most vulnerable and innocent children from the labyrinths of poverty and exploitation. Along with the effective measures to eradicate poverty and, to decrease unemployment, to reduce the problem of the street children also, we should also take up birth control techniques, so that the irresponsible and the illiterate parents of the street children cannot carelessly increase the population of the streets.
All these seem to be herculean tasks, as it pertains to the whole society; but we all know with the very little efforts of all of us and if we try to become more humane in our outlook and attitude, then no mountain of problems shall remain unclimbed by us.
I would like to end with an excerpt from the poem “Jesus of Calcutta” by poet Nirendranath Chakrabarty, where he has depicted the simple situation of how a son of a street dwelling beggar of Kolkata brought the traffic to a halt and have made the poet and the other bystanders to realize how the first footsteps of a little street child can be significant for the fast and intolerant lives of the city; indirectly making us aware of both the rights and the plight of the street homeless, foodless and attire less street children around the world.
“The child of a beggar Mother,
The Jesus of Calcutta,
You’ve stopped the whole traffic by your spell.
The voice of the public, the clenching teeth of the intolerant driver,
You are no part of it;
The fear of death on both sides, and through the center,
You walk with trembling steps.
It seems like the whole humanity is embodied,
Through your mirth of learning your first steps
You want the entire world in the grip of your hands.
As if for that you are walking with shaking footsteps,
from one edge of the world,
To the another.”
– (“Kolkatar Jishu” By Poet Nirendranath Chakrabarty, translated from Bengali to English as “The Jesus of Calcutta” by me.)
The child, and all the street children of this world are indeed the ‘Jesus’ of the city, the saviours humanity; and the ‘light’ of hope to the millions of downtrodden street children across the globe.
By Upamanyu Basu, West Bengal
