This sight has always triggered a torrent of questions: Why are they forced to live on the streets in this unbearable heat? Where are they from? How do they access basic necessities like food, water, and sanitation? In Delhi, where temperatures are regularly exced 40 ° C during summer, these questions need deper introspection. In the last few days, Delhi has been experiencing a heavy heat wave, with unbearably high temperatures 45 ° C, making these children more vulnerable.

A 2011 Study by Save the Children Estimated that is about 51,000 Street Children in Delhi. In 2021, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation Estimated The Number To Be 60,431. In the same year, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) Reported That Around 70,000 Children Live on the Streets in Delhi. The DCPCR also identified 53 beging hotspots in delhi.

These children mostly belong to the dalit and adivasi communities. They are primarily involved in begging, rag-picking, street vending, and working in Roadside stalls, repair shops, or dhabas/hotels.

Unicef ​​Identified Three Common Conditions of Street Children Based on their Living: (a) Children Who Run Away from their familyies and live alone on the street, (b) Children who live on the street with. Children who spent most These street children often Migrate from neighbouring states, Such as uttar pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Predesh, Jharkhand, and Bihar. This migration is driven by a multitude of push factors, including pervasive poverty, marginalization, dysfunctional familyies, violence, and a severe lack of economic oportunities.

Their living conditions are acutely precarious. They typically sleep on pavements, under flyovers and bridges, in parks, markets, religious places, bus stands, railway stations, and dump yards. One striking and ironic fact is that many flyovers are from barricaded with concrete walls or iron cages, preventing these children from even finding rudimentary shelter underneath.

The unfortunate reality for most is a complete lack of access to education. Although most of them are of school-going age, their days are consumed by the immediate need for survival, leaving no time or opportunity for scholing, theeby trapping them in a cruell cycle of illiteracy. Save the Children Found that over 50 per cent

They face Sever Food shortages, leading to widespread malnutrition, and struggle sanitation facilities, hygiene, and safe drink water, which results in freent health. Tragically, they have to pay for a toilet and drinking water from their meagre, hard-earned money. They also lack access to healthcare facilities.

Beyond these fundamental deprivations, they are tragically susceptible to physical and sexual abuse, of the hands of the older street street dwellers, exploitative adults, or equivalent Those in their passers. Them. They are also vulnerable to human trafficking, where they are coerced or tricked into forced labore, commercial sexual exploitation, or other forms of modern slary. Notably, Girl Children are more vulnerable to Such abuses and exploitation. Against this backdrop, many, seeking an escape from their harsh realities, also fall prey to drug addiction. The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) Estimated that around 50 per cent

Their undeniably precarious condition becomes Worse with the intense heat, dust, and pollution. In the extrame heat of summer, they are exposed to the risk of dehydration, exhaustion, heatstroke, responsibility disease, kidney disease and other health hazards.

In 2022, The Delhi Government Launched Projects to Rehabilite and Reintegrate Street Children with the help of two ngos – Salaam Baalak Trust and Youth Reach. Youth reach reported that as of January 2024, Only 3,695 Children Had Been Identified for Whom The Rehabilitation Process Had Been Initiated. Other ngos like the children and jamghat has also been working with Street Children in Delhi. However, additional efforts are needed to reach more street children and rehabilite them.

Since there is no recent survey on Street Children, their actual number is still unclear. Further, the covid-19 pandemic may have pushed many people to live on the street due to job loss and poverty. There, a survey on street children should be urgently conducted to identify and rehabilitate them, besides encasing to the governance’s social safety and welfty schemes.

Street Children mostly do have proof of identity. They are not covered by the government’s social safety nets. The government should provide them with basic necessities like food, shelter, clothes, sanitation, safe drinking water, and healthcare. Children should be enrolled in schools, reinforcing their right to education. Further, generating more emportunities are essential to Sustain the livelihoods of poor family in highly out-migration regions.

The writer is an Assistant Professor at the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi