1 case of children in ‘Street Situations’ in Nagaland
Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 31
The North-East States, including Nagaland had no cases of ‘children without support living on the streets all alone’ except for Assam and Tripura, informed the data provided by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development in the Parliament.
However, in Nagaland and Meghalaya, there were 1 and 5 cases respectively of “Children stay on streets in the day and are back home in the night with their families who reside in slum/ hutments.” There were no ‘Children in Street Situations in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Sikkim.
In Assam, a total of 230 children were in ‘street situations’ including 48 ‘living on the streets with their families’ and 31 living alone without support as of February 15, 2022.
A total of 141 children were designated as those staying on the streets during the day, but back home in the night with their families residing in slum or hutments.
While there were no cases of families residing on the streets in Tripura, 14 children were staying alone without support on the streets, while there were 2 cases of children staying on the streets during the day.
17914 streets kids across India
Meanwhile, the WCD data informed that across India, there were 17,914 street children or “Children in Street Situations.’’
Maharashtra had the highest number of street children at 4952, followed by Gujarat at 1990, Tamil Nadu (1703), Delhi (1653) and Madhya Pradesh (1492).
Apart from NE States, the Union Territories Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep had zero cases of street kids,
The status was as of February 15, 2022, based on Baal Swaraj, a portal devised by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for real time monitoring of children living in street situations.
All the States/UTs have been directed by the Supreme Court to upload the data of children who have been identified to be in street situations, the WCD Minister Smriti Zubin Irani further informed in the written reply in the Lok Sabha on March 25.
Government steps
The WCD Ministry is implementing a centrally sponsored scheme namely Child Protection Services (CPS) Scheme – Mission Vatsalya under which support is provided to States and UT Governments for delivering services for children in need of care and in difficult circumstances including rehabilitation of children living on the streets, Irani said.
The Child Care Institutions (CCIs) established under the scheme support inter-alia age-appropriate education, access to vocational training, recreation, health care, etc, she added.
The Minister further highlighted that a responsibility matrix defining role of primary duty holders at all levels from State to Panchayati Raj Institutions was also shared with States/UTs.
Meanwhile, NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo in a recent interview with the PTI news agency regretted that states are not working effectively towards identifying and rehabilitating such children.
About 20,000 street children have been identified across the country till now and are in the process of getting rehabilitated, he said, further estimating around 15-20 lakh children are living on the streets of India presently.
