India is second only to China in population with over 1 billion citizens. It is home to almost 19% of the world's children. More than one third of the country's Population, around 440 million, is below 18 years. The future and strength of the nation lies in a healthy, protected, educated and well-developed child population that will grow up to be productive citizens of the country. India must invest its resources in children proportionate to their huge numbers. Therefore it is an urgent need for increasing expenditure on child protection, so that the rights of the children of India are protected. The neglect of child protection and development issues not only violates the rights of the children but also increases their vulnerability to abuse, neglect and exploitation.
The Constitution of India recognizes the vulnerable position of children and their right to protection. It guarantees in Article 15, special attention to children through necessary and special laws and policies that safeguard their rights. The right to equality, protection of life and personal liberty and the right against exploitation is enshrined in Articles 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 23 and 24. The concern for children has also been expressed in UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1989. The Convention prescribes standards to be adhered to by all State parties in securing the best interest of the child.
However, these policies and legislations for children have on the whole suffered from weak implementation, owing to scant attention to issues of child protection, resulting in scarce resources, minimal infrastructure, and inadequate services to address child protection and their development problems. 'Child Protection' is about protecting children from or against any perceived or real danger or risk to their life, health, personhood and childhood. It is about reducing their vulnerability to any kind of harm and protecting them in harmful situations. It is about ensuring that no child falls out of the social security and safety net and those who do, receive necessary care, protection and support so as to bring them back into the safety net.
While protection is a right of every child, some children are more vulnerable than others and need special attention i.e. street children. The Government recognizes these street children as 'children in difficult circumstances', characterized by their specific social, economic and geo-political situations. Failure to protect children has serious consequences for the physical, mental, emotional, social development of the child, with consequences in loss in productivity and the loss in human capital for the any nation. SHELTERING BOOKS, a Jaipur based organization, also therefore, endeavors to create a strong foundation for a protective and developmental initiative for children specially slum and street children. Jaipur being no exception to other metro cities also has a similar set of characteristics. This mainly includes a large population of varied nature living in slums, pavements, Bus & Railway Station etc. With poor accessibility and delivery of services in such places, prevents this segment of our society specially the children, to receive them meaningful and much needed services for their overall psychosocial, personal and economic development.
Street children, the offspring of today's complex urban realities worldwide, represent one of our global family's most serious, urgent and rapidly growing socio-educational challenges. No country and virtually no city can escape the presence of these so-called street children. In some parts of the world, they have been a familiar phenomenon for many years. In the last decade this phenomenon has grown at an alarming rate throughout Asia and Africa.
