I found this information about children living on the train station in India and the statistics of how many they are and what they are exposed to when they have the train station as their home. I actually found a magazine on the metro the other day and they wrote about this swedish girl named Anna Fischer who has recently won the “best Director of a Documentary” at the ITN Distribution Film Festival, Los Angeles, California, USA for “Lucky Express” a documentary of the children on the train stations in India. I found the trailer on Youtube and the I was happy also to find the website of the movie. and on that page I found the information about the runaway kids who live in the rail stations in India.This breaks my heart.India once stole my heart and also having travelled in India and meeting a friend and also getting to know new friends, India is for me a very dear place and close to my heart. Seeing how the children are so vulnerable and exposed to so many dangers situations make my heart break into peaces.
“No one knows the exact number of abandoned and abused runaway children who have been forced to live their lives in the train stations of India. Social workers have counted up to two hundred children arriving at the larger stations every day. According to UNICEF, there are approximately eleven million child runaways in India. More than 70% of these children are less than fourteen years old, and it is not uncommon to see children as young as three year olds among them. They work as soon as they are able to speak.
Why are they found at the train stations? The stations provide access to public toilets, water and—most importantly—leftover food and opportunities to make money. Children are involved in a variety of different work at the train stations, including begging, vending, rag-picking, performing for travelers, cleaning and sweeping, shoe shining, and selling refilled bottles of water. Bottle collecting is one of the most common enterprises: empty water bottles are abandoned by passengers, gathered by the children, and brought to local recycling houses, where the kids receive no more than a pittance for their efforts. At the very most, children might make 150 rupees (ca US$3) a day from bottle collecting—spent immediately either on food or on such goods as glue for sniffing. Money can never be saved, of course; what isn’t spent is usually stolen by other children, by gang members or pimps. An estimated 90% of the children are engaged in substance abuse.
These children are in constant danger. It has been estimated that it takes an average of twenty minutes after arrival at a station before a child is approached by an older sexual predator, or is offered drugs in exchange for sex. Some children have to prostitute themselves to gang members in order to ensure themselves a somewhat safe place to sleep at the station. Life is hard, a daily struggle to survive. As the children get older,their only chance of survival is to to join the gangs. Life at the train stations is as tough as it gets for a kid in India.”
It feels a little bit hopeless to read such dreadful information about how children are living in this world but I know there is hope. A friend of mine works in Kolkata with this complex situation. And another friend of mine work in the north part of India and her family has started a home for vulnerable and abandoned girls.My dear friend and reader this make my heart much more relief to know that I have friends fighting for children in India but there is still so much to do for all the kids around the world.
Let us fight for the right for every child!
//Maria
Note!! I recently spoke with my dear friend Sanna and the editor of the blog and she is beginning to settle down in Singapore but have had A LOT to do with her new work. But stay tuned she will soon correct the english grammar! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!! =D
Source of information and photo : http://www.luckyexpress.org/
For more information about the movie take a look at the trailer or check out their website. http://youtu.be/-kkfVaf0nUw
peoplearenotforsale 