Children of the streets are the one of the major problems India is dealing right now. It’s a shame for a progressive country like ours to have more than 11 million children out on the streets without any proper shelter, education, food, water, sanitation and safety.

Street children are among the most exploited and vulnerable section of the society. Majority of street children are minors who live and survive on the streets. These children often grow up in public landfills, train stations, foot paths, bus stands or under the bridges. They hugely end up on streets because of the death of parents, neglect, abuse, divorce and domestic violence. Sometimes the children opt to stay on streets instead of going back to their families because of the conflict and constant abuse at home and this makes it even more difficult to counsel these children and motivate them to return home.

Children staying on the streets end up leading a treacherous life. To add more to misery, these children also go through exploitative child labor and prostitution which leaves them emotionally, physically and mentally scarred for the rest of their lives. Not only this but these children often don’t speak much and are unable to understand and express their feelings. It has been noticed that street children often feel guilty and blame themselves for their mistreatment. If not taken off the streets or provided help, they slip even deeper in the pit of poverty, substance abuse, violence, begging and stealing.

Huge number of street children gets accustomed to the streets with the time and they leave all hopes of ever getting back to the normal lives. They learn to live the hard way and refuse to any help given to them in terms of re-establishing them back in the society, as they enter into adulthood because by now they lose confidence and trust in people who come forward to help them.