Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Rise in number of street children in Navi Mumbai' that was published in Newsband

Rise in number of street children in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: There is a rapid rise in the number of street children in Navi Mumbai. It is clear that these kids come from neighbouring regions. Many of them drop out of school and come here since they find this city provides employment opportunities.

A survey was carried out at fifteen nodes in Navi Mumbai. It was found that the maximum number of children has migrated with families from inside Maharashtra.

All wards were combed for presence of street children including railway platforms, bridges, flyovers, dumping grounds, signals, religious places and markets for recording the presence of street children and interviewing their groups. 

The trends related to influx of street children in Mumbai have undergone a sea change over decades. Earlier children from states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal used to migrate in large numbers. But the latest numbers indicate that intrastate migration from within Maharashtra has outnumbered the children arriving from other states.

The reasons for such migration include looking for jobs, drought-stricken poverty, famine and lack of power supply prevailing over the Vidarbha region. An exodus of rural families to urban areas is but natural. Children are uprooted from villages and stripped of their right to education as the family migrates.

According to UNICEF, children are either ‘on street’ working through the day and return to their families in the evening or ‘off the street,’ which are runaway, abandoned or orphaned and live on their own. The census recorded that majority of the children in the survey were categorized as ‘on street,’ and having migrated with their families from within Maharashtra.

Presence of up to 1,087 street kids was recorded in CBD-Belapur and Panvel areas of Navi Mumbai during the rapid assessment. The researchers discovered that they were migrants from within Maharashtra.

Large presence of Pardhi tribes migrated from rural Maharashtra dwelling in tarpaulin and plastic shanties were seen. Their children have gotten involved in begging and rag picking. They perform street gymnastics or are dressed like gods and goddesses for procuring alms.

Seasonal migrant labour for contractual work at construction sites being recruited from interior Maharashtra has increased. The presence of a large number of vulnerable children on streets in Navi Mumbai is alarming. These children either get work as child labourers or they become targets of those involved in human trafficking.

What the people who conducted the survey did is just the visible tip of the iceberg. The hidden population is difficult to be accounted for in a rapid assessment survey.