Street urchins turn new corner, move on right track

PUNE, NOV 21: Seven-year-old Raju and his younger brother Ravi are chicken dressers at the local chicken centre. When they are not cleani...

PUNE, NOV 21: Seven-year-old Raju and his younger brother Ravi are chicken dressers at the local chicken centre. When they are not cleaning up chickens, the two boys roam the streets and blow up the money earned after hours of hard work. Then the money could even be spent for their daily dose of drugs supplied by the friendly neighbourhood peddler.

His friends are no different. If Ganesh is a ragpicker, Satish works at the local tea stall. Driven by circumstances, they either run away from their homes or become breadwinners for their families. In either case, these children end up on the street. Three years later, things have changed for the 300-odd children taken under the wing of the Pune unit of the Community Aid and Sponsorship Programme (CASP).

For the first time, these children are making efforts to attend school. Satish now wishes to set up his own tea stall. He still lives on the streets. But he is willing to chain up his handcart to any pole to ensure that there are no thefts. His friend is willing to try his hand at selling vegetables. At the same time, he is not willing to compromise on his studies.

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Pune has more than 12,000 street children. When Rohini Gokhale, chairperson of the city CASP decided to work with the street children, she realised that she had an uphill task on hand. Says Gokhale, “Gaining their confidence is the first major hurdle. Once you have crossed this obstacle, the rest becomes comparatively easier.” In this three-year period, the CASP has opened six informal centres for such children. There are centres in Pune Camp, Market Yard, Hadapsar, Dapodi and Bopodi. Gokhale is particularly pleased with the success achieved with the dombari (acrobat) children in Hadapsar. Not only did these children begin attending classes at the informal centre, they are also making efforts to ensure that their friends also come to this place. The project, according to her, has been such a resounding success that despite the stoppage of grants by the Central Government last year, it continues to flourish with aid from other agencies.

A recent meeting of the alumni of CASP is indication of the efforts taken by this non-government organisation to rehabilitate children. Many of the children who benefited under the organisation’s “general sponsorship” programme are well-settled with good jobs. If one of them is a Major in the army having fought in the recent Kargil conflict, another is an HRD chief in a reputed firm. Some have become doctors and engineers.

For an organisation which has spread its wings to 10 states and celebrated its silver jubilee on Sunday, there is certainly a sense of satisfaction in having rehabilitating so many children. Yet a lot remain uncharted and untouched. And for CASP, this marks just the beginning.