STREET CHILDREN AND AIDS

Two boys and a girl between nine and sixteen years of age live under an unused bus shelter in Bangalore. They share food, habits, and the substance they are addicted to. The girl’s biological mother is the only adult they have contact with. The mother begs and prostitutes herself for a living. The children collect plastic waste to sell, steal and sell sexual favors. They have all spent time in shelter homes, and have all run away. They prefer being in the street because of the "freedom" it offers.

Street children are abjectly neglected children who are deprived of the affection of responsible adults, who are barely visible except when they are considered a threat or a nuisance. If social service organizations do not disrupt their initiation to life on the street, they become addicted to it. In order to deal with the dangers of street life, they join gangs and learn strategies such as "sex for comfort, pleasure or money" and "drugs for loss of pain." AIDS is just one of the diseases they fall prey to.

Street children routinely have and 'buy' sex under the influence of drugs and their peers. Girls are the most abused. Seeking protection, they join a gang and even the same band members use them. These girls have no knowledge of protective measures and are highly susceptible to HIV infection.

Vasudev Sharma, president of the Child Welfare Committee in Bangalore, says: "Many people think that boys are safe, but boys are just as susceptible to abuse, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, if not more. Boys are more prone to infection due to their limited knowledge and their addiction to 'sex for pleasure' from an early age".

Sharma states that neither the government nor private organizations know how many street children are HIV-positive. Homelessness is not accepted as a reason to test them. The situation is exacerbated by the taboos of Indian society around sexuality in general and the government’s stance in particular. According to field workers, social, religious and cultural barriers prevent an open discussion about the sexualized lives of street children.

Renu Appachu, director of Jagruthi Shelter, says: "There are between 30 and 40 HIV-positive children in my house of 100 children. The issue of street children’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is a ‘hidden time bomb’ that people in India do not yet recognise as a serious threat".

The children of construction workers also run the risk of getting lost in the streets of the cities their parents have migrated to  in search of work. You can help to keep these children safe and enhance their chances of having better lives by contributing to Asha-Kiran's project Day Care Centers for the children of migrant workers, clicking on the link below.

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Source: infochangeindia

NUTRITION SESSIONS FOR WOMEN

Under its Health Program, Asha-Kiran conducted blood checkup camps for the women at its Construction Sites Centers project and the Community Development project to assess their hemoglobin count. The results showed five women being anemic out of the 35 who agreed to be tested. As these women are currently pregnant, we will specially focus on them at the upcoming Food and Nutrition sessions.

The sessions are also planned for women who have children between 0-6 years and will focus on basic facts about food and nutrition, the functional significance of malnutrition, improving their diet at a low cost, the nutritional needs of different age groups (toddlers, children and teens), the nutrition of expectant and nursing mothers, infant feeding, preparation of instant and supplementary foods, and promotion of breast-feeding.

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RESCUED?

'Gauri’s' boss, who owns a chain of hotels in Mumbai, said he did not know it was such “a serious offense” to hire a minor, despite the fact that the Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act was passed in 1986, and that in 2006, the ban included work in the domestic sector, restaurants and tea stalls.

Through rescue operations that can be very traumatic for them, the Child Labor Program locates working children under fourteen, removes from the work site and hands them over to the juvenile justice system or (sometimes) to educational institutions. Although punitive actions against employers are carried out, the process may also lead to the criminalization of children.

Historically, when the worst forms of child labor caught the attention of international organizations, the idea of "rescue and rehabilitation" gained popularity. However, 'rescuing' child workers without providing better alternatives to them and their families, merely push them to less visible and harmful jobs. It seems that, at least in some cases, the social duty ends at 'freeing children’, without stopping to think that by doing this alone, their right to survival is violated.

Children who are forced to work are not criminals; they do not work because they want to or enjoy it, but because they have no choice. Victims of an unequal and unjust system, they are often regarded and treated as criminals instead of individuals whose rights have been violated, who struggle to survive amidst growing pressures, and who should be respected and supported in their transition to durable solutions.

Through its work with marginalized communities, Asha-Kiran strives to provide education and opportunities to children in need, and to empower their families as well. Help us keep our projects with vulnerable children going so that they will no longer need to work. Click below to contribute to this cause.

LET’S KEEP THEM FROM BEING PRECOCIOUS ADULTS

Source: The Concerned for Working Children

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS - IGNORED AND MISTREATED

A report by Human Rights Watch states that sexual abuse is "disturbingly common" in Indian homes, childcare facilities and schools. To add insult to injury, child victims are often mistreated and humiliated by police. The Indian government has made no public comments concerning the matter, as it usually does not respond to such reports.

A government study reported that over half of the nearly 12,300 surveyed children reported one or more forms of sexual abuse. Child rights activists believe many more cases go unreported. According to Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of HRW, “Children who bravely complain of sexual abuse are often dismissed or ignored by the police, medical staff, and other authorities”.

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act made all forms of child sexual abuse a criminal offence. It also made it possible for an abuser to be prosecuted for molestation and non-penetrative sex, shifted the burden of proof onto the abuser, and recommended setting up special courts to try cases of child abuse.

But campaigners say that better laws alone will not help unless there is a change in social attitudes and the way police, medical officials and the judiciary deal with these cases. In India, sex is a taboo subject and sexual abuse is rarely discussed or admitted. Campaigners say that the abusers are often family members such as parents, grandparents, uncles, siblings, and other caregivers.

Often parents and other authority figures are reluctant to report abuse because they want to avoid shame and scandal. They may also want to protect the child victims from having to deal with a callous police force, intrusive medical examinations and an insensitive judiciary. Campaigners argue that India needs a "zero tolerance approach" to cases of sexual abuse of children.

Sources: bbcnews / humanrightswatch

TRAINING FOR WOMEN: ADVANCED COURSE IN TAILORING AND DESIGN

The advanced course in tailoring for community women, which included fashion design, started in June. The first batch of 20 women who completed the beginners’ course last year enrolled in this first course of advanced fashion design, which will have a duration of three months.

In this second stage, they will learn to design new patterns of dresses, blouses, etc., and perfect their cutting and stitching. Upon completion of the course, they will be awarded a certificate from the Government of India, which will come in handy if they wish to start their own business, get a good tailoring job or secure a loan for small scale entrepreneurs.

Asha-Kiran's aim is to strengthen, train and prepare women and to equip them with commercial skills so that they can provide clothing for their families and develop their own economic streams.

CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES - DOUBLY CHALLENGED

According to Indian government estimates, one in 10 children is born with or acquires a physical, mental or sensory disability, so India could have 12 million children with some form of disability. It is estimated that three quarters of disabilities are preventable and that only 1% of children with disabilities have access to education.

It is unfortunate that society continues to view disabilities with apathy, or with pity on the one hand, and repulsion on the other. While recognizing the need to make a special effort for people with physical and mental challenges, efforts in this direction have been insufficient. And in spite of initiatives to frame disability within the area of "rights", there is still a long way to go.

Source: infochangeindia

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOR

Since 1978, the government of India has attempted to tackle the issue of working children. But millions of children still work in humiliating and injurious occupations. State strategies have failed to meet constitutional commitments to children. Scheme-based, relief-oriented strategies have not only failed but also caused irreparable harm to them. The approach has been criminalizing rather than empowering, and marginalizing rather than inclusive.

Poverty is a condition that ails more than 42% of India’s population. The present rationale is that the poor have brought this condition upon themselves through resisting education, succumbing to superstition, and lacking initiative. It is also believed that compulsory education and microfinance are effective in solving the problem. However, the possibility that poverty could be the result of economic models and the slow progress towards political decentralization is rarely debated.

Global recession is also contributing to increased poverty and vulnerability of those who already lack social security, increasing the numbers of children who work. Plans to address child labor concentrate on the ‘pull factor’ (the demand for child workers) instead of the ‘push factor’ (the reasons why children enter the labor market). They attempt to prevent child employment by using punitive measures against the employer through raids and financing bridge schools for rescued children.

This bypasses the fact that bans only try to shut off the demand for child workers, paying little attention to the causes of poverty and the increasing supply of children to the labour market. On the other hand, blind faith in schooling to solve all problems and the conviction that all work is a curse upon childhood are simplistic generalizations.

It is worth noting that present schooling for children from marginalized communities does not promote independence, critical thinking and an enquiring engagement with the world. It is rather a form of ‘training’ designed to meet the needs of a rapidly changing market. It would be more practical to address the supply side of child labor since this would place the focus on the basic causes that push children into the labor market and would lead to more sustainable solutions.

It is likewise not acknowledged that working children are thinking and feeling human beings who are capable of participating constructively and actively in the formulation of solutions. They and their families need to be empowered to become agents of their own change. Such an approach, with the right support and resources, can achieve much more than treating them and their families as lawbreakers.

It would be advisable to break up the problem into manageable portions and decentralize the design, planning and implementation of initiatives to the panchayat and municipality level, as a previous step to make working children and their families part of the solution.

Decentralized social monitoring would enable local governments to have a better grip on the progress of action plans. Each panchayat or municipal ward could begin by conducting a detailed survey of child workers in the area. This data should serve as the baseline for monitoring progress. Social monitoring by children, their families, the community and local governments, would enlist the whole population in the mission.

India must uphold the Convention of the Rights of the Child and keep the ‘best interests of children’ as the central principle of all strategies and interventions. This can only be done by recognizing children as active participants in the process.

Source: infochange