Establishing Remedial Education Center/ Non-Formal School for Street Children between the Age Group of 6-16 years

Indian streets are home to approximately 18 million children. These are the children who have been relegated to the fringes of society: marginalized, exploited, abused and neglected. These children are subjected to malnutrition, hunger, health problems, physical abuse, commercial sexual abuse, child labour and harassment.

What sets apart these children is their capacity to compete and hold their own in an adult, and often antagonistic, world. Yet, despite the extraordinary harshness of their everyday existence, it is a wonder that so many of them have their humaneness intact- they smile, laugh, share and give of themselves readily. It is for this ‘never say die’ spirit of theirs, that there is still a lot of hope to change their attitude towards life. They need to be freed from emotional blocks so that their psycho-social development is not arrested.

1. Mobilizations of street children and distribution of educational material

2 Contacting the children at contact points

3. Awareness, motivational building programmed on education, health, and hygiene at the contact points.

4. Parents counselling if required in selected cases (where parents object to sending their children to the centre).

5. Identification and enrollment of the children in the Educational centre

6. Starting the classes with basic education, counselling on moral values, health, hygiene, good habits, personality development etc.

7. Starting vocational training classes for children of older age and those who can’t or are not interested in studying and have the responsibility of earning a live hood for the family.

8. Conducting periodic health check-ups.

9. Organizing sports activities and various competitions like quiz, drawing, painting etc.

Goals:

• Bringing street children into the mainstream of our society.

• Creating an environment for them to harness their hidden potential and enable them to escape the poverty trap

• Installing a sense of purpose in their lives by helping them become self-dependent and ultimately responsible citizens/human beings.

Outcomes:

• A changed attitude towards their circumstances – view themselves as an oppressed minority and become protagonists rather than passive recipients of aid

• Overall development of the children by encouraging them to think, imagines, evolve and enable them to develop their capacity and livelihood

• Preventing their susceptibility to drug addiction, begging, petty crimes etc

Street child suffers traumas that even grown-ups would find hard to handle. They are exposed to many detrimental environments and take up begging, shoe shining, rag picking, and many of them even get involved in petty crimes. They are vulnerable to become a potential link in the vicious cycle of Marginalization-Deprivation-Criminalization.

Education or rather illiteracy is the perfect tool that can help them to come out of this vicious cycle. This problem needs to be addressed on a war footing. If not given the right direction, their lives will be a waste. With the right combination of education, care and professional supervision, a street child can find new ways to be loved and understood, to forge a friendship, to prepare himself for a career and to have workable dreams for this future.