The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Streetchildren living on the edge focus

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Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Streetchildren living on the edge focus

B. Madhu Gopal

Some of them beg at traffic signals while others engage themselves in petty jobs

Many of the children are runaway kids
Some of them fall into the hands of middlemen

— Photo: K. R. Deepak

Taking chances: Streetchildren gambling at Ramakrishna beach in the city.

Visakhapatnam: Go on a drive around the city. What’s the most ubiquitous scene that you find at almost all the traffic islands? You needn’t be a Sherlock Holmes or rack your brain for an answer. It’s the presence of streetchildren or women with kids in their arms seeking alms, unmindful of the heavy traffic.

There is every danger of these children being knocked down by moving vehicles. There is more to it than meets the eye. It is the growing insensitivity of the public and the authorities concerned towards abuse of children. It’s wrong to think that giving a coin or scolding the beggars is a solution.

The children come from different backgrounds. Many of them are runaway kids, who are victims of neglect or torture at home. Some are made to beg by their own parents to supplement the family income or fall into the hands of middlemen who hire their services to mint money.

Some live on the railway platforms and beg in trains. They indulge in all sorts of vices like gambling, smoking and even consuming liquor. Sometimes they are rescued by voluntary organisations like Childline but most of them prefer to return to the streets and live the way they want instead of going back home and getting beaten up by their drunkard father or stepmother.

Some of the little boys and girls prefer doing petty jobs like working as a helper at a mechanic shop, tea stall, hotel or as domestic help. Girls are generally preferred as domestic servants. Their services are much sought after by employers despite a ban on child labour.

Ironically, children have been employed even in the works being executed by Government departments like the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and the Integrated Tribal Development Agency. It could have been just indifference or insensitivity to the problem.

“We have issued notices to the GVMC Commissioner, Executive Engineer and the contractor in this regard and are awaiting their reply,” Joint Commissioner of Labour M.N. Varahala Reddy said.A little girl was badly beaten up at Murali Nagar a week after the world observed Anti-Child Labour Day and even as the Labour Department was conducting a drive for identification, release and rehabilitation of child labour. A few years ago another girl was beaten black and blue by her employer for a trivial mistake.

While these cases have come to light there could be several others that go unreported. The ‘victims’ suffer silently either out of fear of losing their ‘job’ or under pressure from their parents back home. Interestingly, most of the time it is the educated and rich ‘master’ or his family members who indulge in violence against their ‘servants’. Though the arrest of the accused would act as a deterrent to employers from treating children as slaves, only a change in the outlook of people can transform the quality of life of these hapless children.

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