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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

20% street urchins pick rags: Study by Himanshi Dhawan

In a stark reminder of the exploitation of street children, a new study has found that one out of every five street urchins in Delhi is a rag picker. With most adults unwilling to do the work of rummaging through the city's garbage, an overwhelming number of children have been driven to do it. About 15% children are street vendors, while 15% depend on begging for their living.

With the country observing Anti-child Labour Day on April 30, the study on Delhi's street children by Save the Children has found that the most vulnerable section continues to be left out of any targeted policy and planning process.

The child rights NGO surveyed 50,923 street children in Delhi. North Delhi had the highest concentration of street children at 10,091. Street children constitute 0.4 per cent of the National Capital's total population.

The study revealed that one out of every five (20.3%) street children was involved in picking rags. About 15.18% were street vendors, 15% beggars, 12.19% worked in roadside or repair shops, 6.24% in dhabas, or hotels and 1.22% in manufacturing units.

Save the Children CEO Thomas Chandy said, "The presence of such a large number of children on the streets is a clear indicator of the denial of their basic human rights."

The study — the first of its kind on the census of street children in Delhi — covered all nine districts, and considered three categories of children for their enumeration. The first is street-living children, who have run away from their families and lived alone on streets. The second is street-working children, who spend most of their time on streets, but returned home on a regular basis. The last category is children from street families, who lived on streets with their kin. Social class was a key determinant of leaving a child on streets to work or live because 36% street children were dalits, 17% tribals and 38% belong to other backward classes.

The study found that working street children are most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Employers force these children to work for long hours, without food and any safety equipment and for abysmally low wages since they are not aware of their rights. Worse, studies have shown that they are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse by strangers, adult street dwellers and, at times, even by the police.