Life on the streets

by Shanika Sriyananda

As night falls the small boy stores the tools in the box while the elderly man counts the day's collection. He smiles as he realizes he is able to earn a few hundred rupees. He offers some coins which are enough to buy a loaf of bread and a few toffees for the little boy.

Though the boy cannot count the coins, he is happy because he had got more coins today. His quite fair face is covered with dust. And the face itself tells the agony he had undergone. With no clean clothes to wear, his pair of pants and the shirt are almost rags.

The 12-year-old is ready to go 'home' but waits till 'amma' comes from work. He sits on the pavement near a shady tree. Next to him, sits a young girl carrying a toddler, who has a deformed hand. His non-stop crying is difficult to define, but surely he cries in pain and hunger.

The sister does not want to soothe the baby and she just stares at the sky. Those who pass her throw some coins as a token of sympathy for the baby's cries.

Another boy joins them. They seem to be friends. With no big dreams or hopes, they are simply happy with the coins they earned during the day.

They know that the sun rises and night falls and that this is just another day for these children, who have been victimised due to extreme poverty and social evils. When you see these children who are loitering on pavements or selling sweep tickets or simply begging... what do you call them? Instantly, the words 'Street Children' will come to your mind.

Yes, they are the so-called street children who cry for a few coins... who beg for a packet of lunch... and as a whole these are the children who cry for their lost 'LIVES, LOVE and JUSTICE'.

Take Dasun, who is a helper in the makeshift cycle garage... or take Amal who is doing odd jobs to help his mother, the sole breadwinner of the family to meet the day's needs or take the teenage girl , who pretends to be the sister of the toddler and lastly take the infant whose hand is deformed. All of them have similarities ... they are no one's children and the only truth is they belong to the pavements.

Dasun does not know his real mother and the woman he calls amma is a prostitute in the city. When the Police arrest her, she sells the boy to the garage owner for a few thousand rupees just not only for money but also to protect his life till she comes from jail.

Then the boy is compelled to work from dawn to dusk for some coins daily. His mother is his heroine, who gives him love and care. The hard reality is that she is not his biological mother but she raised the new born baby who was left on the pavement. She knew that the tiny tot would be a hinderance to her job but his innocent eyes made the woman who spend the night on the pavement, decide to 'adopt' the baby.

Amal has an elder brother, who now goes back with his mother to work in a small factory in Pettah. Until the two come from work, he earns a few rupees by being a helper at several eating stalls, washing plates and cups. The two boys do not know their father and have never entered to a school.

The young girl was born in a remote village and was brought to the city by her uncle after her mother's death. He sold the girl to a woman, who in turn sold her to the owner of a brothel house. With failed attempts to escape, now she has been given a new role as the demand for her body has dropped. Now she has been employed to act as the sister of the toddler. She has been taught inhumane 'tricks' to make the boy cry to evoke pity to get more coins.

It is pathetic to hear the story of the toddler, who has been deformed forcibly by the owner of the baby.

He was sold to the man by a prostitute who wanted to get rid of the newborn to continue her job. Born as a healthy baby, the old man however, had broken the baby's hand to get more 'profits' when using him for begging.

The story of the toddler was told by another street beggar when the 'Sunday Observer' was interviewing these children living on the pavements.

On some days, according to the beggar, the tiny tot, who is just 10-months-old is kept under the 'hot' sun on the 'hot' pavement to make him cry. Blackened due to the heat, the baby got sun burns and rashes all over the body. The scars on his tiny body are evidence of his torments.

The shocking revelation - may be a fabricated story of the beggar- but undoubtedly it will be an eye-opener to the authorities who are mandated to protect the rights of children of this country.

With no 'Home Sweet Home' to live, the majority of these children live in the pavement. Never having stepped into a place called school they learn every thing from the pavement. Having adjusted themselves to a rough and tough life on the pavements they do not know parental love and care. Born and bred on pavements, the majority have been abused.

The number of children on the streets is on the increase. With a new trend, of selling rural children, who are destitute, to the city to earn thousands of rupees, the number of children in the city pavements have doubled. The issue of street children cannot be overlooked as these children are more vulnerable to various crimes including prostitution and drug peddling.

The street children can be categorised as children who have only intermittent contact with parents or family but live most of the time with other children in the city and children who have been abandoned by their parents and are found on the streets because of family problems.

A recent study by the Senior Lecturer of the University of Kelaniya Dr. Rohana Luxman Piyadasa found that most street children, who are begging live with their parents on pavements.

According to the study which interviewed over 1043 street children in 106 cities a large number of children have been pushed to the streets due to the death of their parents or because their parents are in prisons.

Deprived of education and subjected to physical and mental abuse, the future of these kids is uncertain despite several projects and several institutes entrusted to protect them. The issue of street children is not a new problem and it has existed in Sri Lanka for decades.

However, it is sad to note that the authorities concerned are yet to implement projects to safeguard these street children. On the other hand, it is good that they have at least 'thought' about street children in 2007 and 'intend' to give priority to look after these children this year.

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) is to implement a major project to rehabilitate street children and to re-open the drop-in centres for street children.

The NCPA opened 16 drop-in centres but six had been closed due to some problems but they will be opened end of next month to facilitate the street children to develop their skills including computer training.

"We cannot give an exact figure on street children yetbut we are carrying out a survey soon", NCPA Chairwoman Padma Weththewa said.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of the Department of Probation and Childcare Sarath Abeygunawardena said the issue of street children needed an integrated approach.

"For years we tried to rehabilitate the children who were found living on the streets by institutionalising them. But we need to approach the families. And also to look after the welfare of these children", he said adding that there are over 30 children, who were found on pavements and are in children's homes run by the Department.

Abeygunawardena pointed out that there are several programms for the street children launched by the state institutions and NGO sectors.

The Department is to launch a major programms to rehabilitate the street children and their families and discussions with provincial institutions are to commence soon.

When contacted, the Women's and Children's Bureau OIC Jagath Balechandra said that according to estimations there were over 800 children living on the streets within the Colombo district.

He emphasised that the issue of the street children cannot be just painted with a few 'brush strokes' to hide the truth but needed a very comprehensive approach with the help of all the mandatary institutions.

"We can arrest these children continuously for some months but if there are no long term solutions to the problem, more children will step into the roads. No one can put temporarily patches to this problem and it is just like the tip of the ice berg", he said.

Balechandra said that there are no complaints on assaulting these children to break their legs or arms but these children were more vulnerable to physical abuse.

According to Balechandra, a majority of the children do not have parents and some children who had been brought to the city as domestic servants had stepped into the streets.

He said that there are only 150 vacancies in the state run children's homes but just institutionalising these children would not solve the deep rooted problem.

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