By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Winter is cruel and hits street children the hardest. With no shelter or warm clothing these children live by their wits. Talking to them, this reporter gathered that they spend their nights under staircases, footpaths, parking yards and other public spaces.
Though the country’s law provides them the assistance of a night shelter but that is still waiting to see the light of the day in Meghalaya.
A street kid working in the Butcher Road area said winter is very hard to cope. “Though we are used to living in the streets but winter is hard to bear,” said a rag picker. Another child informed that some philanthropic organizations donate warm clothes and blankets during the festive season and that keeps them going.
“We don’t have homes because there is no trace of our parents,” said one young boy. Another child said he does not see his parents for weeks and months together.
Nearly all street children are malnourished and vulnerable to all kinds of sicknesses. What they earn by picking rags is spent on medicines. But many of these children also spend their earnings on cigarettes, alcohol and drugs possibly to keep the cold and pain at bay.
During the monsoons, street children are wet and miserable as there is no shelter over their heads.
The Shillong Times spoke to Iba Synrem, Centre Coordinator, Childline to find out what is being done for street children. She said there are two types of street children in the city. “Some street children spend the night in the streets. Others are on the streets during the day and go back to their homes at night. These children earn their living as rag pickers,” said Synrem. She further added that these children are mainly seen in Khyndailad area and spend the night near the MUDA Parking Lot, or sleep in vehicles.
Synrem said there is no dedicated night shelter so far in the city for these children adding that the night shelters will be provided by the ICPS (Integrated Child Protection Scheme) once its gets fully implemented.
“There will be some NGOs who will be registered under the ICPS, which will be provided grants to open such night shelters,” she said adding that Childline is an emergency helpline and is assisted and helped by several NGOs in its activities.
Meanwhile, the Urban Affairs Department (UAD) recently entrusted the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to find out the actual status of street children in the state. The SWD found that there are no street children in the rural areas. Presently the SWD is working on the implementation of the ICPS which is a safety net programme for children.
“All existing childrens’ homes/NGOs will come under ICPS,” said LN Jyrwa, Additional Director, SWD, adding that so far the SWD has registered 15 NGOs. The condition for registering with the SWD is that these NGOs are registered under Juvenile Justice Act. The NGOs are registered through a scrutiny committee under the SWD Directorate and the registered NGOs are entitled to get fund under ICPS.
Jyrwa informed that the ICPS office will be located at Lachaumiere and should be ready by March this year. “It is partly operational now. There are the Juvenile Justice Boards, Child Welfare Committees etc. which will come under it and the members will be capacitated to tackle the issue,” she said.
P Naik, Principal Secretary, UAD said, “We have a night shelter for destitute, children and others but not specifically for street children, run by the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) in its premises. Any body can go and stay there,” said Mr Naik adding any city with a population of 10 lakhs needs a night shelter as per law.
Meanwhile, T Lyngwa, CEO, SMB said that initially there are around 49 people in its night shelter but it is lying vacant now. “We have every provision in the shelter like mattresses, blanket, pillows, toilet, separate rooms for males and females. We have even conducted a campaign last year but none came forward. We are planning to regularly campaign to attract people otherwise it is useless to have such a shelter,” said Mr Lyngwa.