You may have noticed that whenever our cars stop at the traffic lights, some unknown, forlorn child appears at our window and starts asking for food, money, or even to sell some pens and flowers. Where are they coming from? Where will they go from here?
Whenever a foreign national visits India, street children become an unavoidable tourist attraction in their city tour itinerary. These children living on the streets perform multiple jobs — pick-pocketing, selling fruits, flowers, and other small items, begging, cleaning cars, shoe shining, etc. These odd jobs sometimes make these children earn almost around $2 a day, which is a good catch in a country where earning $2 a day can be a decent amount for many. COVID-19 has magnified the struggles of sustaining livelihoods for many. According to Pew Research Centre analysis, the number of people who are poor in India (with an income of $2 or less a day) is estimated to have increased by 75 million because of the COVID-19 recession.
Street children have been identified by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as children living and working on the streets in difficult circumstances. The longer they stay on the streets, the riskier their situation becomes.
When I see children on the streets amid the flashy lights of cars and buildings in Delhi, some thoughts echo in my mind —
The streets are noisy, smoky, and chaotic
Often too crowded and smelly,
And we remain unaware of this blurry world
Not belonging to this part of Delhi.
But this Delhi too is a part of us
Of you and me, alike,
Just open your hearts more than your eyes
And make a million stories alive.
One evening, while I parked my bike at a shop, two young boys, around 7-8 years old came to me and asked for some money to buy food. Long story cut short, I got them some food and while one of them ran away as soon as I offered him food, the other boy stayed. I asked him if he would be willing to speak to me and if he could tell me some story about himself. He agreed. His name is ‘Vikas’ meaning, development in English. I wanted to pause for a while and see the world through his eyes.
It is never easy to hear the life stories of children like Vikas who live on the streets. Some of them have abusive parents, some have no parents or anyone to take care of them, and some are eagerly trying to escape their current and potential traffickers. Vikas’s story is no different. His father is a daily wage worker and works in a metal factory nearby. Sometimes, Vikas too cuts some iron rods and pieces. He lost his mother to some disease about which even he is unaware. All he was worried about was his younger sister for whom he wanted to take the food he got from me.
Vikas lied to me that he was hungry. Maybe he was hungry but didn’t show. He didn’t know much about the facts of his life, probably there are no facts. Vikas told me that he has no dreams of becoming anything in life. This broke my heart. Maybe he has dreams but they’re obstructed by his present situation in life.
I wonder what thought Vikas’s parents might have named him. What dreams they might have had for him. Did they really have dreams for him or they too had no dreams just like Vikas? Our life revolves around the people who we care for and in Vikas’s case, it’s his younger sister for whom he desperately wanted to get some food. This probably was the shortest story of someone’s life I’ve ever heard. Be kind to these children you see on the streets before they forget what kindness really means.
When was the last time you really went to the children on the streets and spoke to them?
Thank you for reading! Subscribe to the blog.
