what could be done?
April 13, 2008 by gopalkoduri
I feel guilty — I dint(not couldn’t) help them; I’m sad — how are they living?; I’m sorry — the worst word symbolising escapism; This exactly is the sequence of my states, which happens each time I see a poor child begging.. the questions which pour down upon me are : What could *I* do to improve the situation? Are there any charity organisations which are willing to accept these children? If so, is it just lack of information, that these children are still on the street? If anyone out there had some insight, kindly let us know, so that we could redirect those kids to proper place..
Your information, whatever it may be, could be very helpful, so please dont hesitate to let us know whatever you have..
hardly the place to post this, as i have no real information.
anyhoo. everyone wants to “help” street children. not many seem to ask certain questions, though -
1. how exactly does one “help” children on the street? temporary solutions like money are pointless. what they need is education and shelter. the government, even if it got all proactive, can do very little. if “proper” government schools are in the state they are, how well could it run an orphanage?
2. adoption by a family? i doubt people willing to adopt would want a 10-year old street child on their hands when they can go adopt a new born baby and save their future child all the tortured memories of living out on the street.
3. adoption by orphanages? they are quite few in number and have their hands full as it is. Plus the increasing number of reported abuse cases in some of them paint a scary picture.
finally, the most important question -
would a street child WANT to leave the “lucrative” profession of begging?
A while back, I came across a few articles along the lines of “why beggars beg”. Turns out, in India atleast, they earn more than they would with an honest days work. There were quite a few stories of how adult beggars ran away from government shelters. Their logic was that not only were they earning more via begging, but they didnt have to do any great manual labour for it! Children and those with physical disabilities get more sympathy and hence more money. For some, begging is the only option, for some begging is the easy way out.
How do you tell one from the other? And even if you can, how do you “help” them?
most of the children have homes too and they need to shell out their ‘earnings’ at the end of the day to their ‘caretakers’
its a very complex problem obv … alas
@Badrinath,
You are right.. but I’m looking for pro activeness from the public and thats us.
For example, there is some act/commandment, which was passed two and a half years back, which says every citizen can get the financial/whatever working course/records/information of any institution under government. This applies to working of govt schools and other orphanages run by govt. Here is one way out.. If a sarpanch could motivate the teachers/recommend enthusiastic people in the place of old irresponsible/corrupt ones, that could take care of the situation at village level, which extends like a tree to the state level. The sarpanch and a small body at sarpanch level(say ward members elected from all the parties in village) would ensure the things like ‘Noon meals(మధ్యాహ్న భోజన పథకం)’ are properly implemented. If anything goes wrong in the hands of sarpanch and his team, there comes into picture above mentioned information act, which can be used by US, the public, say students!
Now my Question is What could be the difficulties and ‘could-go-wrong’ things in this kind of plans and who is the right person to be approached to get it implemented?
@mythalez
Once there is a proper way out for those kind of kids, those ‘caretakers’ can be tracked, I hope. Until then, if we try pulling them out, it’s these kids who are going to suffer.