DCPCR identifies 5,000 street children in two districts
NEW DELHI: As the entire nation celebrates Independence Day on Thursday with great zeal and fervour, the lives of Delhi's hapless street children will not change much. They will continue to sleep on the streets and beg to earn a living.
The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has identified 5,000 vulnerable street children and enrolled them in Aadhaar.
The child rights body also plans to link these minors with Delhi government welfare schemes to secure their future.
When the traffic light turns red, many of these children gather around the windows of cars, with bouquets or other items in their hands, to earn a meagre living.
"Our only priority is to earn money to get food," explained a girl, wishing to remain anonymous, her reason selling flowers near traffic lights.
To save their childhood, DCPCR is curating data on street children in the city and, so far, 5,000 such children have been identified from south and south west districts.
"Many camps were organised where we counselled the children and their families," said a DCPCR official.
Roop Sudesh Vimal, member, DCPCR, told Millennium Post that many of these children are involved in rag-picking. In some cases, the parents force the children to beg.
"Upon interacting with these children, we found that they complained of various types of abuse they face on the streets," added Vimal.
Some street did not even have any family, while many of them were are from other states.
Sources in DCPCR claimed they have identified some places in another district of the Capital where street children are under the influence of drugs. The Commission also suspect involvement of gangs that are forcing children to beg. Many of these street kids have been provided with Aadhaar
"No one can force children to beg or do any sort of labour. Action will be taken against any person involved in forcibly making kids do such work," added Vimal.