He was 10 when he began living on the streets of Delhi. His friends have similar stories to tell of why they ran away from home to the urban jungle where every day was spent in trying to survive hunger, beating, illness, sexual abuse and fear.
It is ironic that street children like these who live such vulnerable lives, are considered in the popular perception to be lawless, crime prone, living on fraud and theft. The most that the State does for such children is to dump them in punitive, jail-like remand homes. Boys and girls who have got used to the freedom of the streets cannot adjust to this regimented, negative environment.
The result, the streets of Delhi, despite the many lurking dangers, are home to over 40,000 children, who have run away because they got no love and had to contend with constant beating and grinding poverty. Most NGOs agree that this is the number of children who are completely on the streets. However if we were to also count the children who work on the streets, returning home only to sleep at night, plus those who work and sleep in shops, the figure would mount to more than four lakhs.
He points at Sunil and says, "It was 8.30 at night three years ago when I came across a group of seven boys sniffing solution near Jama Masjid, scruffy, dirty, unwashed and zonked out. I asked them if they wanted to change their lives and do something worthwhile. They said yes and I took them to the Nizamuddin Bharat Scouts Grounds."
In Amit's words - "I cannot even describe their state. Physically and mentally they were different human beings altogether. They had lice all over their bodies. They pretended not to hear you and tuned you out. In my experience, almost all children on the streets have faced sexual abuse. It changes the way they look at the world. Now look at them, they are like you and me, they have their fears, pain, laughter, pride and dreams to make something of their lives." "Bhaiyya doesn't know, but sitting in the auto that took us to Nizamuddin, we were making plans to run away. We had all done nasha; had we been sober we would have never agreed. We first thought he was the police, then someone who wanted to take advantage of us," recalls Arjun.