THE CHILD TRUST & FIAN DELHI’s Submission on

Street Children’s Right to Food and Education

Input Towards the Elaboration of the General Comment on the Rights of Street Children of the Committee on the Rights of the Child

The Child Trust & FIAN Delhi welcome the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s decision to develop a General Comment on the Rights of children living on streets as well as its call for civil society submissions in the preparation of this General Comment. This contribution seeks to provide information and recommendations about the right to adequate food and right to education of children living on the streets. The information contained in this submission is based on information obtained through exchanges with affected communities during the course of the work, especially during the process of documenting cases of violations of the right to food.

Violation of Right to Food of Children on Streets

Children living on streets are among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged sectors in the country, however, most of them or almost all of them are not covered by food schemes or other forms of assistance provided for below the poverty line (BPL) category of the population due to non-ownership of a proof of residence.

Children who are forced to make the pavements and railway platforms their home are the most excluded and are most comprehensively barred from every government initiative. Children living on streets buy their food from food stalls. On bad days the younger ones even forage for food in rubbish heaps. The rag pickers start their day with a single cup of tea as they can spend only a little money and only after they complete their work by late afternoon do they buy their first meal of the day from the stalls. They are not allowed to enter in good food outlets and restaurants as they are considered dirty and a nuisance. At times, they forage in the bins for bits of biscuits and samosas, and sometimes beg at temples. There are thousands of malnourished children and children who go to bed without eating.

1. Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Midday Meals
In any Indian city, one would invariably come across homeless children playing on the streets and dirty by-lanes, who never go to schools or anganwadis. This stark exclusion of homeless children in the twofood schemes of India is visible across cities. Either the schools or anganwadis do not exist at a convenient location, or the homeless are routinely turned away, for want of an enrollment in school or Anganwadis and a permanent address and also because of stigma.
2. Public Distribution System (PDS)
Not having any proof of identification and address proof means not being able to claim BPL or Antyodaya cards and other food schemes, which depend on proofs. The other menace that homeless people face is the perpetual threat of being forcibly displaced or dislocated from their place of stay. Most children on streets do not have ration cards and hence are out of the purview of PDS.
3. National Food Security Act 2013
NFSA provides food at a subsidized rate through the local anganwadi and for children aged 6-14 years, one free mid-day meal every day (except on school holidays) in all government and government-aided schools up to Class VIII. Unfortunately, this too doesn’t seem to cater to street children as most of these children do not go to school and do not have a family set-up.

In the realm of policies, India does have the National Policy for Children 2013[i], the Right to free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act 2006 and but needs of street children have not been addressed by suitable remedial actions as it demanded.

Recomendations

Create a caring, protective and safe environment for all children to reduce their vulnerability in all situations including street and homeless situation and to keep them safe and secure at all places including all public places.

Support child centered approach and community based management of spaces that could be relevant with geo-socio-cultural context of the situation for all street children at block, district, and state levels.

Children should be facilitated in getting identity proof, which the government accepts as an entitlement and enables them to get admitted in schools and is able to avail facilities of the government.

The Draft National Plan of Action for Children-2016, circulated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in February 2016,ensures Child protection in all humanitarian action- Safeguard children from exploitative situations, displacement, separation from family, deprivation of basic services, and disruption of education andSufficient budget allocation for child protection schemes and measures and accountability mechanisms for vulnerable children.

The focus from only access to food should be enlarged to access to balanced food as balanced diet is required for the overall development of children.

Amendments to the existing Food Security Act, 2013 to be in accordance with recommendations by Indian Council for Medical Research which states that children require 7kg grains per month while the bill provides entitlements to 5kg per person per month.

Compulsory enrolment of children on streets in schools to be ensured and Mid-day meals in schools should be provided for all days and should be extended above VIII standards, as anybody below the age of 18 according to the definition of law is a child and should be provided with balanced and nutritious food.

Upholding and implementing international protocols and consensuses like ICESCR, CRC.

Right to Education of Children on Streets

The Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 promises education opportunities for out-of-school children, particularly those belonging to socio-economically marginalized families. Street children and child labour constitute a high proportion of such children who have remained out of the ambit of formal education system of India. Though it was promised that after the implementation of SarvaShikshaAbhiyan, no child would be deprived of education but in reality the government has miserably failed to provide elementary education to thousands of such children who wander on the streets.

A census of street children in Delhi, conducted in 2010 by Save the Children, a nongovernmental organization working for children’s rights and the Institute for Human Development, revealed that 50.5 % of the street children in Delhi were not literate. Twenty-three per cent of the children had received some form of non-formal education while almost 20% had received some form of formal education.

Government has made too little an effort in mainstreaming children on streets to provide them education. Be it any state in India, it is only with the help of few NGOs that children on streets are able to receive some education or formal education. But, NGOs have their limitations and cannot cater to all children and therefore large numbers of street children are devoid of their Right to Education.

Recommendations to ensure Right to Education of Street Children

Recognize street children as a special and most vulnerable section of the society and allocate necessary budgetary provision for protection of children and implementation of those measures with accountability and decriminalize street children in all circumstances and ensure education to each child.

Enumeration of pockets with high concentration of out-of-school children involved in beggary, street and working children, rag pickers, small vendors, street performers, orphans, deserted, trafficked and run away children who are in need of care and protection.

Mobile schools to facilitate the transition from street to school.

Start anganwadis through ICDS at places, which have a higher presence of street children.

Sensitizing teachers to interact with the children who are first timers to schools.

Provide bridge courses to children who have suffered breaks in their formal education and provide intensive coaching to such children, to help them re-join formal schooling in a class appropriate to their age.

Registration of children on streets by the local Government machinery and identified NGOs.

The children so registered should be segregated in different categories according to their needs and requirements of education.

NGOs may be identified for using space for education, play and extracurricular activities of such children.

[i]The State commits to taking special protection measures to secure the rightsand entitlements of children in need of special protection, characterised by theirspecific social, economic and geo-political situations, including their need forrehabilitation and reintegration, in particular but not limited to, children affected bymigration, displacement, communal or sectarian violence, civil unrest, disasters andcalamities, street children, children of sex workers, children forced into commercialsexual exploitation, abused and exploited children, children forced into begging,children in conflict and contact with the law, children in situations of labour, childrenof prisoners, children infected/affected by HIV/AIDS, children with disabilities,children affected by alcohol and substance abuse, children of manual scavengersand children from any other socially excluded group, children affected by armedconflict and any other category of children requiring care and protection.