They are among the invisible sections of society, with no presence in government records and few social security measures directed at them despite being backward and vulnerable.
However, the first comprehensive survey of street children by the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has located over 71,000 orphaned children, beggars, and runaways in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, and Nashik. Mumbai has over 52,000 such children living om street, including those living with their parents. This pilot project will help ensure main-streaming, financial inclusion, and protection of these children and their families.
Pravin Ghuge, chairman, Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR), which conducted the pilot project with 'Save The Children,' said they would launch initiatives to bring these children into the educational mainstream, ensure financial inclusion and give them identity documents like Aadhaar cards.
Ghuge said this was the first such exercise by the child rights body on this scale across Maharashtra to map these vulnerable children. He added this would help trace abandoned, missing and runaway children, who have no identity records.
Rupali Goswami, who handles advocacy, campaign and communication for Save the Children, said the mapping launched in the three cities since April 2018, with mapping partners and government departments, had detected 71,058 such children below the age of 18 years. This included 52,536, in Mumbai, 14,627 in Pune and 3,895 in Nashik.
The project will run till March 2020 in 10 cities nationwide, namely Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mughalsarai and Kolkata.
Goswami added now, around 70 per cent of these children lacked identity documents and were hence out of the ambit of social security schemes like PDS, health, and education, and lacked financial inclusion. Aadhaar enrolment camps have been launched to they access the national unique identity number. This will also ensure the delivery of social and financial security entitlements.
The project will also help trace kidnapped children and runaways using Aadhaar-linked biometrics. At present, these children are produced before the child welfare committee (CWC), which conducts a social investigation, and restores them to their families.
Government departments and district protection staff will also be able to develop a plan for the protection and care of children in such situations.
