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Children are one of the most beautiful creatures, right! But have you ever thought what makes a child that special? Their innocence, cuteness, carelessness or way to interpret things!

No matter what according to you makes that, the truth of so many people being forcefully deprived of all of these needs no special mention. In a country where the official data of census 2011 says that there are over 1 crore child laborers, situation is definitely more than severe. Data also points out the 33 million as the number of working children between age group of  5-18 years. National Crimes Records Bureau, 2016 data says that daily on an average 150 children goes missing in India.

Let's keep this data aside now and think practically on ground. What leads to the poor status of a very huge number of children in general? It's not that tough to guess that this is because of poor family background and so the question changes now to what ultimately leads to poverty and send the parents in a situation to throw their child out of home or create a similar environment. This is true that everyone needs money but should that lead to selling of children to traders? Definitely not. Talking of personal experiences I know some child laborers who works just because their dad don't want to go and earn. Some do this because they find it better than facing daily abuse at home, some because the money they get can be used for silly cheap drugs they fell prey of and last but not the least because they don't have any other option, they lack skill and need to eat to live in this merciless world.

This was of course about normal child laborers but what about those living in streets in special looking for shelter homes, waiting for morning to never come while sleeping in underpasses and also for those who tries to sell that lovely rose bouquet in the temperature ranging 43-48 degrees. The life is even tougher for them as they are not offered homes from their 'Maalik'. They sometimes beg as well and can you imagine how they would be feeling when someone stares and them with kind eyes. They don't want that but the condition can bring that only. Most of the street children are because their parents didn't have any ancestral property but sometimes it is because of migration in search of better lives and not to be easily believed, for begging also. The situation is very disheartening and it needs serious discussion.
We with our upcoming weeks blogs will keep on touching that issue. The efforts at Jamghat is for the betterment of these chilren only. Aman, Aanchal (Both residential homes for such children), Aangan (Day care center), Sadak  (Outreach program) and Ekjut (Employment program for women) programs from our NGO are aimed at the upliftment of these children only.

Eram – Positive energy at Aanchal!

Eram – positive energy at Aanchal! Eramwas with her sister Uzma and brothers on the street of Jama Masjid area. She used to come at Aangan day care centre with her siblings. She got her basic education, food and timely healthcare facilities at Aangan. WhenJamghat’sAanchalshelter home for girls was started in 2010, she was movedthere. Eram is one of the top performers in her class and very bright in her studies, she is also very active in sports. She is in class 10th and going to a prestigious educational institute - Ryan International School. She is also a NCC cadet in her school, active in theatre workshops, anda keen learnerof contemporary dance. Eram is full of positive energy and an all rounder! She has big dreams for her future – wants to apply for Indian Civil Services. We,at Jamghat, are trying to give her full support in accomplishing her career goal and wish her the very best - as always!

Dulari Bai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPzpOIIlmO4

Jamghat Outreach Program

Jamghat- A group of street children is a Registered NGO since 2003. We are working with the runaway- home and homeless children in and around Jamamasjid and Hanuman Mandir area. We have fifteen children in indoor centre to whom we provide medical care, counseling, food and lodging specialties with education and vocational training. In outdoor centre there are about 25-50 girls and boys to whom we provide medical care, counseling and food as a day care centre with education and vocational training. Though we have much more in our indoor and outdoor centers, our heart was always with the children out there in the streets, without any guidance or nobody to share their life situation. With much thinking and planning we begun a programme for them called the Outreach Programme, with two staff (Sunil and Deepankar) and a Volunteer (Priyashanker) from CYDA Pune. The following is a study, research and experience of them.

We are there from 10.30am. To 5.30 pm. during which we roam around Jamamasjid and try to gather children at one place for different activities to attract children . Our activities are as follows;

1. ANTAKSHARI (Cross singing completion)

2. CRICKET, FOOTBALL, KABADDI

3. DRAWING COMPITION

4. STORY TELLING

5. COUNCELLING

6. THEATRE TRAINING WHICH EXPOSES SOCIAL ISSUES, ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND HUMAN VALUES

The Fantasy world

As we started our work we found many surprising things. The situation around Jamamasjid is very pathetic. The different age groups live over there on the streets or in open space are addicted towards ganja, charas, smoke, and tobacco etc.we found a common thing among all the kids, women, and men that is a type of chemical which is known as solutionwhich is used to repair cycle tube puncture and the whitener pen for correction respectively.

They put these chemicals in a small piece of cloth and suck it. It is very injuries to health. There are many people, who have been taking these drugs for years. These drugs are easily available in the market around this place. By sharing, we came to know that they inhale these drugs to kill the pain of their body, to get relaxed and most importantly they find themselves in a fantasy world after the drug.

The sources of income

People over there, earn by selling (plastics, iron, tin etc), begging, gambling etc.some are rickshaw puller and some have small business on the streets. They have families but not responsibility. They have hope but not dream. They waste all their money in addiction. Parents take drugs and they share with their children too. They spread the chemicals from the tube on a piece of cloth which would cost Rs.2 to Rs.5.

These drugs are openly marketed and there are people who don’t take it but sell it. We found very few children with some dreams to do something in their life. They want to leave the drugs and be good citizens.

Activities:

After seeing such situation around jamamasjid, we started to do different types of activities like games, storytelling, theatre etc. we try to involve them as much as we could so that they would forget their addiction of drugs for few hours. Actually we prefer to communicate to the kids because we could mould their minds easily than the elders. We motivate them by telling good stories with good examples. While doing this we found out some of them are very good at acting, dancing, mimicry, drawing and Shayari telling. But they don’t have platform. All their talents are vanishing behind the curtain of addiction. We try to collect good kids from streets and send them to Jamghat outdoor centre for their education.

The young girls, boys and women are very much Vulnerable. At the age of 13 to 14 they get married. There relation breaks due to lack of education and maturity. They also marry with two three men/lady. Men persecute the women and that is the end of their married life and then the drug life begins followed by prostitution. There are many found with bad health we really help as much as we could. We give them first aid and try to send them to hospital.

Obstacle:

There is no proper place where we can sit with the children and do some activities properly. Every day we change our places. Sometimes under the tree and sometimes under the sun we work. It is very difficult to work during the midday because of the hot temperature. There are parks but not allowed during day time. They start to fight on small issues. Every day we see fights among them. Some local people create problem by trying to break the chain what we make.

Conclusion:

Sharing the life style of the people around this place, during these past few weeks, certainly enriched us so much that we have an experience that would last forever.inspite of a bad surrounding they have humanity. They want to change their self. They have hope from us. They wait every day for us so that they can play with us. They have too much pain within them and want to share with us. They respect us. The rich experience we have we would like many people to have. So we loaded some video clippings and images in our website. Please visit our website www.jamghat.in