Today we did something that has been on our list for a while...
Salaam Balaak Trust City Walk. "Salaam" means salute, and "Balaak" means children. This organization provides a good life for street children who either ran away from home or got lost from their parents (believe it or not, he said this often happens during crowded festival times and children are too young to know their address or where their parents are). The walk starts near the New Delhi Railway Station, where children arrive every night from their villages hoping to start a new life in the capital city. Our guide, Satyender, told us some stories of these street children...
(Warning: this is somewhat graphic)
Many children run away from home because they suffer from daily mental, physical, or sexual abuse. Often their families are too poor to provide food for their family. Our guide told us many children run away to Delhi because they think they can become a Bollywood star or meet a Bollywood star. The children that end up here usually end up begging on the streets or finding odd jobs at the railway station (like taking old plastic bottles to recycling centers). Sometimes adults offer them work and promise them food, clothing, and shelter, but then abuse the children. Some adults find these street children and cut off hands or feet or make them blind so the children will get pity and earn more money on the streets begging. The children cannot go to the police because the police will send them back home. The children who beg or work on the street have to spend all the money they make each day, otherwise the money they made would get stolen from them when they sleep. Our guide told us that most street children spend their money on drugs, entertainment (movies, etc.), cigarettes, but rarely on food. That's because the Sikh Temples serve free food to the public daily. The children found sleeping on the street are beaten by the police because it's illegal (so many children buy movie tickets so they can sleep in the dark theaters). Many of the children prefer to be beaten occasionally by the police rather than daily in their own homes. The children often become drug-addicted because their friends tell them it will help them feel less pain when they are beaten by the police or their "caretakers".
Now the good news....
Salaam Balaak Trust (SBT) is an organization that changes the lives of thousands of street and working children in India (about 5,000 children every year). I asked the guide what he suggests we do when begging children come up to us or our car window (which happens almost every day). He suggested never giving them money, but instead give them food - a non-packaged food because the children can just sell the packaged food to a vendor for money. He said if a child seems in distress for any reason we can call "Child Line" a government helpline, and they would come pick up the child and take him/her to a SBT contact center (the number is 1098 from a mobile phone).
The SBT has contact centers where any child can receive breakfast & lunch, play games, and watch TV (only on Fridays). This is where they gain the children's trust so the children know they won't be abused or mistreated. Then the child decides if he/she wants to join the SBT center where they live and receive food, shelter, clothing, and they must attend school. Some children decide to join and some don't (because they like the freedom they have from life on the streets). Every night people from SBT go to the Railway Station where they look for children in need. Every night they bring in new children to their centers.
At the end of our walking tour of the streets around the Railway Station, we went to the SBT center where we got to meet and interact with some of the children who just joined the center. They were delightful and we enjoyed playing hand clapping games, arm wrestling, and even thumb war (remember that game??? 1, 2, 3, 4... I declare thumb war). We speak "tora, tora" Hindi (little, little) and they spoke tora, tora English, but it was fun and we even got some photos with the kids!
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Wall with pictures of Hindu gods (cleverly put there so people won't pee on this wall out of respect for the gods).
Good idea! |
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| Our most excellent guide, Satyender. A former street-child in Delhi himself. |
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Photos of icons from many religions together in this alley - Hindu, Christian, Buddhist...
Talk about respecting religious diversity! |
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| Tim and Satyender walking along the streets of Paharganj |
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| Fruit-walla along the streets (that papaya looks good!) |
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| I found my namesake guesthouse! Most people I meet in India think my name is "Karan"... that is my Hindu name. |
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Tim standing next to the Friday T.V. at the SBT contact point.
Children here can watch T.V. only on Fridays! |
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| The children I arm-wrestled with... of course I let them win! |
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| Group photo! Some of these kids had been in the center only a few days. |
It was nice to hear their stories and find out about a great organization that is making a difference in the lives of these children. To see some photos that were taken by street children from Salaam Balaak and shown at an exposition a few years back, click here:
Flickr Album
