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Celebrating 10 Years |
Annual Report 07-08: Home Placement
It is estimated that Mumbai has approximately one million street children living within the city who have migrated from outside the city, coming from different parts of the country. It has been observed that the children take the rail route, since the trains go virtually everywhere in the country. When they alight at a railway station, unaware of the realities of the city and startled at the magnitude of a metropolis like Mumbai, the fear makes them think twice before they venture out of the station. Gradually, the station becomes their home where, within no time, they learn the norms of survival. The Home Placement project believes in early intervention, where the runaway children who have left their families and reach the train terminuses, are contacted. The overall effort is to create a safe environment for the children reaching the city and protect them from falling into the trap of abuse and exploitation. In our venture, we believe in connecting children with their roots and re-integrating them with their families. It is our constant endeavour to not only re-integrate the children with their families but also the community that should be able to create a web of support and protection to each and every child.
The Home Placement Project has grown over the years both in reach of stations as well as by providing a space to experiment with different initiatives. As entry point to organization for children and youth via Outreach, the project has identified and presented to the larger organization significant issues requiring proactive attention, i.e. issues of migration, trafficking and child labour. The efforts around Child Labour which began within the Home Placement space became a separate initiative this year, while the training of the Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force moved from a project-based activity to an organization -wide endeavor. A major area of focus in this year was developing the background material for a first-ever effort of intervening along transit routes to meet children who are running away, abandoned, migrating or being trafficked. The objective is to meet children who are en route but also to work with families in areas identified as being common to children who have left home in an effort to prevent further running away or trafficking. It will be a significant undertaking in the coming year, but the work put in throughout this year leads the organization to believe that this is the next step in taking care and protection of children to their homes.
Milestones
 | Establishment of a full time Shelter for children reached by Saathi, which has allowed more intensive work with and a greater sense of security to the children |
| Cultivation of relationship with Juvenile Justice Board (Mumbai Suburban) for rehabilitation of Children in Conflict with the Law has led to referral of 9 children to Saathi for rehabilitation and home placement |
| Data gathered and analyzed to allow strategizing for effective intervention at the source for children running away, migrating, or being trafficked |
Concerns & Challenges
| Managing a shelter according to the norms detailed in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000/2006 |
| Significant challenges in dealing with functionaries of the Juvenile Justice System |
| Conducting outreach at stations with open floor plans (ie, Dadar station) requiring evolution of different strategies |
Future Plans
| Strategic outreach at Bandra Station focusing on Child Labour issues and new strategies for Dadar Station Outreach |
| Establishing a Help / Support Desk at the Juvenile Justice Board to assist children and their families |
| Begin field level work in Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh as part of Source Level Interventions |
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Every day brings something new… When asked what they like about their work, a common refrain amongst members of the Saathi team is “every day brings something new.” New people, new challenges, new issues, new solutions. When Sachin was introduced to Mohan and asked to help him get home, he knew that it was going to be a journey filled with newness. There were several challenges in communicating with 15 year old Mohan – he did not know Hindi, only his regional language of Gujarati and he was deaf and mute. The Home Placement team knew generally where Mohan was from because he’d written the name of one of the major train junctions near to his village. After that, though, his village could be anywhere. Still, Mohan wanted to return home and the team felt strongly that Sachin could help him get there. As they rode Northward on the train to that first main junction in Gujarat, Sachin tried playing a game with Mohan. He drew a picture of his house, Mohan did the same. Then he drew pictures of how to get to his house – landmarks, points of significant interest, etc. Again Mohan did the same. But the map didn’t tell Sachin anything he thought would be helpful and so he put it aside and hoped for the best. After reaching the junction, Mohan conveyed that they should take a rickshaw in a particular direction. Sachin flagged one down and they began the next leg of their journey. But after 20 minutes, Mohan didn’t seem to know where he was and Sachin stopped at the next village to check with the local police for any missing child complaints that might match Mohan’s description or any other clues. He found nothing and was ready to return to Mumbai with Mohan in tow to regroup and figure out another strategy. As they moved towards the train station, he looked to the far end and saw a small 4-bogey local cargo train. It rang a bell and he realized there was something similar in Mohan’s map drawing. He took out the map and approached the train, looking for someone who accompanied the train along its route. The engineer he found recognized the places on the map and when he was introduced to Mohan, he recognized him too! He explained to Sachin how to get to Mohan’s village via rickshaw and the journey recommenced. As they made their way to the village, about 15 minutes away, several people recognized Mohan and were happy and relieved to see him back. When they reached Mohan’s home, his parents weren’t home, but when they arrived in the evening they were overjoyed to see their son safe and returned home. Sachin returned to Mumbai alone, his confidence bolstered that he can succeed in helping individuals even when the odds are stacked against them. He takes out the map every now and then to remind himself how even a simple game can provide the missing piece that makes the difference between a reunited family and a life of separation.
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Prakash approached Tilak, 14 years old, at the station because he was sitting alone and looked terribly weak, his foot swollen badly from what we would later discover was an accident on the train the day prior. When Prakash spoke, the teenager just looked at him blankly. After several attempts, it was finally discovered that Tilak spoke Bengali and was unresponsive because he could not understand what Prakash was saying. A Bengali-speaking team member was called, and Tilak agreed to go the shelter where he could be treated and given food. After a couple days, Tilak trusted the workers enough to share where he was from. With the help of the Childline network and police local to Tilak’s district, his family was traced and contacted. They had been searching for him for over a year, ever since he left following a family argument. Tilak’s brother was staying in a city nearby to Mumbai and immediately came to meet him. The brothers were overwhelmed to see one another, and Tilak’s brother took him home to West Bengal. Tilak is now re-enrolled in school and happy to be back with his family.
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