A boy stands in a crowded alleyway on the streets of Kolkata. This urban slum has become his home. |
Hope for Street Children
writer: aditi naik
photographer: maciej dakowicz
(story synopsis)
Of the 11 million people living in Kolkata, over 200,000 are homeless children. |
| A group of children, known as "rag pickers," scour the train tracks, picking up bottles and other pieces of trash in the congested and polluted city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). The children sell trash to recyclers in order to earn a meager living. This is a common sight throughout India where hundreds of thousands of homeless children live and work on the streets in order to survive. The Indian Ministry of Social Welfare has estimated that of the 11 million people living in Kolkata, over 200,000 are homeless children. Widespread poverty, unemployment and increasing urban migration contribute to the growing number of children living on the streets. The conditions that these children endure often put their lives in danger. They often fall victim to malnutrition, disease, harassment and sexual abuse. |
This girl lives in one of the urban slums on the outskirts of Kolkata |
A girl stands on the rooftop of an abandoned apartment building, which acts as a shelter for homeless families and children. |
A child picks through a pile of burning trash to find bottles and scraps to sell. |
Night after night, because they have no safe place to go, the children return to the slums, bridges and storefronts they call home. In some neighborhoods, they have begun to live in vacant urban developments. The Kolkata Port Trust, for example, maintained apartment buildings for their workers near the local docks. When an economic recession forced them to shut down, they vacated the development. Homeless families and children now find shelter in the abandoned buildings. While it provides a temporary roof over their heads, they live without running water or electricity and are often chased away by local police.
In order to protect and encourage the development of Kolkata’s homeless children, three women from Cork, Ireland founded The HOPE Foundation (HOPE) in 1999. Partnering with other nonprofit organizations in Kolkata, HOPE runs night patrols, health clinics, schools and homes for street children. Maureen Forrest, director of HOPE, states that the foundation aspires to give these children a “life of freedom” through various programs to help them “break this awful cycle of poverty.” |
Night patrol teams ensure that those living in slums, like this woman and her child, receive a full meal.
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This family has just received pre-packaged food from the night patrol team.
Night patrol officer, Nitai (orange vest), talks to a family during one of his rounds. |
HOPE routinely conducts night patrols - delivering packages of food, medicine and other goods to children and families living in dire poverty. Mr. Nitai is a night patrol officer for the HIVE project, a HOPE program focusing on HIV/AIDS. He makes his rounds in an ambulance that serves as a mobile health care unit, to reach out to those infected with the virus. Nitai informs people about the various services that HOPE offers, including free health clinics, medications and pathological testing facilities. Night patrol officers also take sick children to the hospital, rescue young girls from sex trafficking and place homeless children in the HOPE schools and homes.
Sister Jenny Browne, HOPE's overseas director, spends nine months each year in Kolkata, working with the night patrol teams and living in the HOPE girls' home. One night after a recent flood, she observed, "Families were huddled unprotected and getting ready to rest after the struggles of the day. Other families were cooking their evening meal as the floods had receded, and they could now light their street fires to cook curry in a single pot. . Pre-packed food was given by our team to those most in need; [this was] probably their first meal of the day. Plastic sheets were also distributed for protection from the rain.
"[We had] conversations with families who suffered from ailments ranging from fevers to serious diseases such as TB and AIDS. Information was given about HOPE clinic [times of operation], and appointments for hospital visits were talked about. Friendship, concern and recognition were all that some of the people needed as they gathered around the familiar ambulance." |
people sleeping on the sidewalk are watched over by hope’s night patrol officers. |
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