Back home: A child being reunited with his
mother.
Ramesh was found crying in the Pune railway station. A
broker who had promised him a good job in the city had abandoned him on
the platform. The child from Mehaboob Nagar in Andhra Pradesh would
have never seen his parents again if he had not been rescued by SATHI,
an NGO working with children living on railway platforms and streets.
Rescuing children from the platforms, providing shelter and care,
returning them home safely and doing a follow up to ensure their
wellbeing is not an easy task. But Bangalore-based SATHI, has done this
with 14,000 children across India including 500 girls and continues to
help almost 340 children every month.
Due to the organisation’s core competence in repatriating children from
anywhere in the country, the Government Children’s Homes in Bangalore,
Pune and Patna have called upon SATHI to help them.
Wrong notions
A research conducted by SATHI says that it is a misconception that
children living in platforms are abandoned or are from wrecked homes.
In reality, most of the children flee home without a thought and cannot
retract their actions either because they have no money or are too
frightened to go back. “We rescue 50 children daily from the platforms
across the country. Some of these children get lost even as their
parents search for them desperately,” said Anjali, project officer,
SATHI.
Life on the platform is not easy. The longer a child lives on the
platform, the more he falls prey to addictions, sexual abuse, petty
thefts and odd jobs for survival. There is no place like home for a
child except for extreme cases of abuse and poverty and the
organistion’s first course of action is “home placement”. As SATHI’s
secretary Pramod Kulkarni says, “A child on the platform never grows
up, he just ages. Early intervention not only saves the child from the
dangers of platform life but also makes repatriation easier as the
child is more willing to go back home.”
But, it is not an easy task. The organisation’s staff scour the
platforms across the country from morning till night. Children are
rescued from the platforms and are placed within the safe confines of
the SATHI shelters. They are counselled and those who are willing to go
back home are taken to their families as soon as possible.
Imparting skills
Others who are reluctant to go back home are enrolled in “home
orientation camps”. Love, guidance and care provided, it paves the way
for effective development of problem-solving and social skills needed
to build self-esteem and renew family ties. Children addicted to
substance abuse are sent to de-addiction camps.
The organisation is sharing insights, knowledge and information within
and beyond the network of 20 NGOs it works with. With EveryChild’s
support, its U.K. sponsor, it has also come up with a special project
for the children on streets but with families. According to SATHI the
paradox of the street children is that their families are aware of
their presence but are not interested in them. SATHI identifies these
children, counsels their parents and enrolls them in de addiction and
goal orientation camps.
SATHI believes in what Walt Streightiff said, “There are no seven
wonders in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.” It aspires to
reach out to as many children in need as possible and protect their
childhood and dreams.
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