One Social Reality
A child had no place to lay his head. He was born on the crib of Bethlehem of Jerusalem. It was not such programmed that the son of God must be born on the crib of cowshed, but the situation made it to happen. Human person is born with the low level of perfect to move towards the highest level of perfection. We are not poor or rich but our way of proceeding and the society’s proceedings make us poor or rich. Jesus made his birth place on the crib because he had no choice left than accepting the rejection.
There are various factors due to which the situation of accidental existence changes but the essence remains the same. The power to recognize the essence and take part in the ground reality is a challenge for each one of us to know oneself better. There are many even today who are homeless. Street has been their home. The ground reality has been seen that in spite of many problem homeless are happier that colonials. Let me present a reality of our society that although a child does not deserve to be poor yet the society makes him/her poor.
A child, who makes the street home and makes use of the street for daily living, is called a street child. Some children are abandoned by families and some children have abandoned their families. Some are on the street to share the responsibility for family survival by working on the city’s street and market places. They are deprived of games, recreations, culture and daily life; and thus they find their home broken.
When I try to measure the different factor that forces the innocent children to make a major decision to be on the street; harassment from alcoholic parents, ill-treatment from step-parents, broken families, poverty, influence of bad peer group, bad environment and disinterest in education. Street children work on the street; they are victim of child labour. They are exposed to different types of problems on the street; hazardous labour, lack of shelter, sexual abuse, drug-addiction, threat from the law and delinquency etc.
It is true to blames on the negligence and immature dealing pattern of the parents, society, schools and government etc. The power of constitutional fundamental rights, “The Right of street Children”– Article 20 of the 1989, gives a child to receive special security, dignity, respect, social participation and recreation. Protection and assistance from state is the right to every child when they are deprived of family environment, and right to live with his parents. In spite of many problems the collaboration of NGOs with government is seems to be a great help to create a movement to of effective work for the rehabilitation of street children.
The most street children have never attended schools and majority of those who have, dropped out before completing primary schools. He presents the story of the number of parents who fall in different socio-economic background of the street children, the NGOs intervention: social service and welfare service on the case towards the betterment of society.
There is the need of systematic observation and deep understanding the behaviour of street children. There are different stories of street children having irresponsible parents, experience of poverty and marginalization. Children often have to work rather than to go to school. Street children are left to rely on their own labour alone. The phenomenon of Street Children has its roots not just in what meets the poverty and family problems etc. but in the whole development itself. It is the duty of society to help the children to realize their rights and responsibilities to protect themselves. To participate in empowering children at the small group raises the provision of basic need, which could lead to genuine development.
The principle cause of child abandonment, child neglect, abuse and exploitations are also directly related to the rapid advance of industrial growth and the persistence of rural and urban poverty. The advent of the industrial revolution, children have been observed working, living, and wandering around various points in the rapidly developing towns and cities. The rapid increase in the number of such children has prompted a number of socially concerned individuals and organizations to ponder over the issue and come up with various strategies. The child is forced to live outside the family. And if a child is left on the street and subsist on earnings from working or begging, then he/she turns to some other means for his/her survival like; thefts; act of violence, drug-pushing and prostitution etc. She presents many events and pathetic life stories of hundreds of street children. The children cannot be criminal in any real sense. No child is born neglected. It is circumstances that push a child into crime. It s not a child is criminal but society, state, and the system itself. The child is only the victim.
There are many NGOs, government policies have been perceived as a progressive step towards ensuring justice to the children. There is a need to create a positive and caring environment by strengthening the bond between the children and their families.
There is real hope for the street children as their situation can be deeply transformed by the progressive development of a healthy life and the access to education, political freedom, guaranteed human right, self-respect and a decent standard living. Street children are definitely our own creation. Each one of us, at one point or other, has affected their lives, either directly or indirectly. Looking after children is not a social service but the responsibility of both the family and the society.
There is need to have understanding on the social reality and analyze the social, economic, physical and emotional need of street children. It is very necessary to create an access to services and process for the growth and development of street children. The government should enable street children to raise their own voice towards the fulfillment of their rights. The concerned organization should reunite children with their families, wherever possible, and it should spread awareness and elicit understanding among the general public on the issue of street children. Research institutions should take initiative to conduct research on the problems faced by street children. It is believed that there objective will help us to focus on the integration of the marginalized street children into mainstream society.
Roshan Baa 