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One-fifth of the world's children live in India. Forty-two per cent of India's population is under 18 - that is 440 million people, a number greater than the population of the United States. |
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India has 110 million child workers - double the total population of Italy |
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An U.N. study puts the number of "street children" in Mumbai (Bombay) at 250,000. |
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| The children end up on the street due to varying circumstances. They are either orphaned, semi-orphaned, run-aways or children of commercial sex workers (prostitutes). Some children maintain regular ties with their family; some maintain minimal ties and some are completely abandoned all together. Most of them consider the street their home where they seek shelter, food and companionship. |
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| A typical day in the life of a street child: |
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MORNING: The children are woken up by force, either by the police or the street vendor whose pavement they are lying on. They are kicked and poked with a stick and yelled at until they come
out of their slumber. They begin to gather recyclables, such as plastic and newspapers to sell
for less than $ 1. This they will use to purchase breakfast, usually their only complete meal for
the
day. |
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LUNCH: During the day, the young children will go to the beach to play or play on the trains. The older boys will start their rounds begging on the trains or stealing on the streets. |
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EVENING: They will continue to beg during the evening rush hour, after the rush hour is over they
take their evening earning and go buy drugs. They buy a take their evening earning and go |
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buy drugs. They buy a liquid substance for $ 0.15 which they can maintain a high for hours, until they fall asleep and start the day all over again. |
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A typical street family:
These are whole families that have typically moved from the rural area to the city and set up a ‘home’ under bridges or directly on
the streets.They literally take over or squat on that piece of land |
while the owners of that land spend years in
courts trying to get them removed.Typically the children
do most of the begging, which is why you
see young children to begging at train stations, traffic intersections and tourist locations. Their
parents are usually close by watching or sleeping while the children earn the family income. |
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There is no way to know the exact number of street children. However, one child living, fighting and surviving on the street is one child too many.
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