PPT presentation on "Street Childen" for saiacs consultation.pptx

Dr. Potana's presentation on street children

1. Streets as the Arena of Social Inclusion and Exclusion of Children : The Case of Street Children in Vijayawada

2. The push and pull factors exclude children from families, society and even the Church. It is a growing phenomenon of urban social sickness in our Indian community. Therefore the emphasis of this paper is that the runaway street children are excluded in every way possible; the reasons are obvious but they demand a practical, innovative, creative and appropriate method to help the children so that they will be included in the family, society and - the church. The methodology of this study is sociological and missiological. Since the focus of the research paper is on rehabilitation of street children, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to balance the Theory and Practice. Prevention, Provision and Protection of street children, these, I believe are the three basic principles that can help them to feel included in the family, society and the Church.

3. Bryant L. Myers rightly observed that “understanding the situation of children and youth in the world is a significant blind spot in Christian mission”(98) In our Indian context, Christian missions in general have more awareness and focus on tribals and dalits but less on chancing Urban issues like street children. The paper presents the condition and the context of the street children that tries to explain why street children are excluded and it progresses to address the issue of how they can be included into the family, society and the church.

4. “Street children are those for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, i.e. unoccupied dwellings, wastelands, etc.) more than their family has become their real home, a situation in which there is no protection, supervision or direction from responsible adults” (UNESCO 17).

5. Children of the street actually live on the street or outside of a normal family environment. Family ties may exist but they are discarded from the families due to various reasons. Even though they have families back at home they live a lonely life on the streets and they struggle for survival on the streets. They may have occasional family contact. Children in the streets are with no family contact at all are they that consider the streets as their full time home. Children on the street are those engaged in begging, selling items and engaging in menial jobs to support the family. They are in touch with their families and some of them even go home by evening to contribute their earnings.

6. The Case of Street Children in Vijayawada 92, 848 which is almost equal to total population of Jersey (UK) It is estimated that about 33 run away children arrive at Vijayawada Rly there are about 5000 run away children .. every year In order to understand the phenomenon of street children in Vijayawada, available data has been collected from the World Vision office. This data has been gathered only for a period of two months, Jan & Feb 2011 during the time of my voluntary work with the office. 52 run away street children are identified by World Vision office staff from various points such as Railway Station, Bus station, Signal points, Cinema theaters etc., I personally did a few case studies and analyzed the data in the light of office records and field observations.

7. Male Female Male-50, Female 2: Total=52 The Gender factor Boys are first in running away from home compared to girls. Girls: If not rescued and rehabilitated, many of them enter in to commercial sex work to secure a livelihood for themselves.

8. Missional Dimension: How can we include these children into the families, society & the Church? Is God interested in Street Children? Do we have a biblical theology that supports the rehabilitation of Street Children? What does the Bible say about these children? Biblical Response God demands full respect, dignity and value to every human being irrespective of whether people live in palaces or on the streets. We should concentrate on Children not with an intention to get back their services to our church and society but we should serve them as an obligation from God. In fact, God used children as leaders to fulfill His great purposes. The Old Testament records that God is concerned of the sinners and the rejected children.

9. Cain run away from his parents with guilt and shame but God found this run away murderer and rehabilitated him with his protection. “Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him” (Genesis 4:14-16). When Hagar ’s little boy was crying for survival at one of the bushes near the road side, “God heard the boy crying” (Genesis 21: 17). In fact, God said, “Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation” (Genesis 21:18). As a semi orphan, Ishmael might have gone through the pain of rejection and “may be, Ishmael was a street kid trying to earn food for his mother by hunting and selling animals” (Yanthan and Zinyu 271). God found this street kid and rehabilitated the kid along with the mother which helps us to understand God’s concern for the street children in our Indian cities. In fact God is in the mission of rehabilitating the rejected, exploited, oppressed, harassed and helpless children, therefore He calls the church to engage in this mandate of mission to the street children    

10. Government and NGOs’ response The Indian government has several developmental projects for these children but they are not really helped by these projects because of the corruption. The projects and the funds that are allocated to these street children actually do not reach them because most of the sanctioned money goes to the middle mens’ pockets. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has prepared an integrated programme for the street children that aim to provide shelter, nutrition, health care, sanitation, hygiene, safe drinking water, education, recreational facilities and protection against abuse. What can the Church do?

11. Case Study; Nageswara Rao (12yrs) run away from school and landed in the Vijayawada bus stand in the early hours on 29 th March 2011. Our intentional visit to the bus stand at 9am helped us to bring him to the ‘short-stay home’ counseling center. I spent four hours with him and used all types of counseling techniques to get information but he did not reveal anything till the evening. After resting for a while and having eaten some food, he gave me his brother, Chittibabu’s mobile number. That helped me understand that he is in 8 th standard at ZPH School, Mallavaram near Podili, Prakasam District, 197km from Vijayawada. I understood from my interaction with the child that the lack of love and care which is associated with poverty is the main reason for this case. Since he is not having father he has been longing for love and acceptance from the family members but his mother always neglects him. In fact, his two brothers who dropped out from the school and settled as agricultural laborers ill-treat him. He is forced to work in agricultural land while he desire to enjoy with his friends in the school. The significant observation I made from this case study is that this boy was good in studies because he was able to speak and write English very well. In fact his brother informed me over the phone that he was the second rank student in his class. After proper care and counseling the boy was repatriated. If we would not have traced him immediately after his arrival to the city, he would have lost his bright future. Now he is in pre-degree course and the World Vision office at Vijayawada is still in touch with him (“Potana’s counseling” 2011)

12. The following are some of the recommendations that are derived from the mission praxis of World Vision and other NGO’s in Vijayawada which can help us to extend our mission to this excluded community apart from preaching the verbal gospel. Our church buildings , laity & clergy can play a vital role in ministering to the street children by adopting these practical methods.

13. Prevention Methods Contact visits to the targeted locations such as railway stations, bus stands and public parks will help us trace run away street children. It needs commitment and patience to interact with the children. The children, if rescued immediately after they land in the city can be rehabilitated with much ease. But, once they enter into the streets, they learn the tricks of the trade. If they merge into the city streets for a week, they will be under tremendous peer pressure that will force them to learn many harmful habits which are hard to give-up. Further, street gangs involved in many illegal activities like drug-peddling wait at the wings to catch the new ones in order to increase the size of their group. Anti-social elements, who misuse these run away children for begging, keep an eye on new arrivals. These organized mafia rent out children for begging for an attractive amount on a daily basis. Therefore, rescuing them immediately is the best strategy to help the children.

14. Contact Centres are the places where run away street children can be entertained and counseled. Run away street children scatter across the city and it’s very difficult to entertain them for long time. Since they are the people of mobility, they don’t like to stay in one place. In an urban context, children move from one direction of the city to another direction and they refuse even to come to drop-in centre. For these children, a contact centre at street children prone areas will be of much help. Non-formal education, recreational facilities and medicare type of tools can attract the children and these centres will also serve as a strategic outpost to build relationship with local communities and street children.

15. Repatriation is one of the best ways for the inclusion of runaway street children into families and society. Therefore “creative ways must be sought to reconcile these children with their communities and families. Even though street life is a culture ingrained in these children, it will never be a healthy way of existing” (Scharen and Vigen 159). Since all run away children cannot be repatriated; long-term interventions are needed for such children.   Family & Individual Counseling/Medicare: Counseling is expected to play a vital role in engineering behavioural changes among the children and their families. Many children suffer post-traumatic syndrome as a result of the abuse, violence & exploitation. Above all, a breach of trust is the most that they suffer at the hands of their immediate family members. To overcome their trauma, counseling is essential. Simultaneously, counseling needs to be provided to parents before the child is repatriated in these centers.

16. Observance of Important days: Preventive methods can be passed on to the public by organizing campaigns on special days such as Child Rights Day, Children’s Day, Child Labour Day, Anti-Child Labour Day, International AIDS Day, etc.

17. Provision Methods Short-Stay   Drop-In Centres (Night Shelter Home ):   Referral Services :   Formal/Non-Formal Education :   Vocational Skills Training: Establishing commune type of living :   Protection Methods Career Counseling and Job Placement Cell :   Street-Children Savings Bank :   Legal action and support   Church on the pavement/street