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The Invisibles

12th April is International Day for Street Children
Here are some stats from Delhi to highlight how grave this issue is:
  • Our city has 51,000 of them.20% are girls.
  • 70% have their home, but don't want to go back - mostly due to parental issues or family/neighbourhood insecurity.
  • 50.5% are illiterate. 87% earn a living—20% as ragpickers, 15.8% as street vendors,  15% by begging.
  • Over 50% have suffered verbal, physical or sexual abuse.
  • Fewer than 20% have ID cards or birth certificates, and so they miss out on government schemes.
Quick ways in which you can help:
  • Volunteer: The most direct method. Join a NGO, Temple, or Gurudwara and ask if they need any help or know any local programs in which you can take part.
  • Give A Moment: Rather than brushing them off to make your way, spend 5 minutes to ask them their names, what they like to do, or their favourite games. Just talk.
  • Initiate Informal Education: If there are any particular street children you see every day, help them with basic literacy or numeracy skills. You can also teach them 'soft skills' like self-expression, patience, self-discipline and sharing - which are social skills that children would normally pick up in a nurturing home environment.
Between feeling upset and wanting to help these children enjoy a normal life, you, me, we all can make a small, tiny difference somewhere.

Comments

Sulekha said…
Great post Nitima. Keep writing. You never know who might you inspire!
Sulekha Sahni
Unknown said…
I love your blog and I love what you are trying to do.
You have my debt of gratitude.
Keep up the good work. We need more people like you
Thank you
BoH
Kamraj Banerjee said…
Volunteering is a good way to share our responsibilities. I totally agree with your vision Nitima. We should try to give back, or else our education is a such a waste.
K Banerjee
Rajeev Singhal said…
Thanks for sharing such a useful information. I appreciate your blog post.
Spirituality is the greatest richness that can happen to a human being.

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