3. Stories of street children and street youths
Though the stories presented in this section are real life stories, the real names of the characters have been replaced by the names of their favorite stars in order to protect their identity and safeguard their future. Likewise, their addresses, too, have been changed.


3.1 Amit – Escape from abduction
My name is Amit Dhungana. I am 17 years old. I am from Bungmati, Lalitpur. I started living on the streets since 1999. I was 10 years old at the time. It was because of my friends and my cousin that I started living on the streets. They used to come from the village to Lagankhel and Jawalakhel[i]. They earned some money by gathering passengers for tempos[ii]. They also brought me along with them. When I realized that money could be earned in this manner, I teamed up with my cousin and started working for a tempo, gathering passengers. After some time, I became familiar with more people and got to know the work better. Then I liked this job even more. My interest in studies declined, as I frequently bunked classes and often walked alone from Bungmati to come to the city. Sometimes, I even walked all the way back home at night. As I did more work for the tempo, I got to know some tempo drivers well and eventually became a conductor. At the beginning, I used to return home at night. Later on, I saw that the conductors usually slept on the streets. Most of them were boys my age. We got along with each other and shared common interests. Therefore, I also started to sleep on the streets. At first, my parents scolded me for not returning home. They told me off for not concentrating on my studies. But I could not mend my ways.

While working as a tempo conductor, I began to know many people at the restaurants in Lagankhel. By this time, I had started growing fed up of my work for the tempo; I fancied working at a restaurant, so I joined a restaurant in Lagankhel, where I washed the dishes and cleaned for a few months. But I did not like this work, so I became a tempo conductor once again. In the meantime, I happened to meet some boys on the streets, who were into collecting waste plastic and selling it for money. I joined them and started earning money. But street hooligans troubled us. They took away our money. They caught small boys like us and made us wash their clothes. We had to face many hardships on the streets. As we didn’t have warm clothes, we couldn’t sleep at all during the winter. Eventually, I was fed up of street life and wanted to return home.

I finally returned home after four years. My parents were happy to see me. I was also pleased to be reunited with my family after such a long time. I had friends in the village. I went out to play with them. My parents were urging me to resume my studies. One day, the Maoists abducted a group of students, who were returning from school. When I heard about this incident, I was so frightened that I left home without informing my parents. I came to Kathmandu, where I started living on the streets again and continued collecting waste plastic.

After few months, I returned home. But my parents had left the house by then, probably due to fear of the Maoists. So I came back to the city, to the same old street and same old work. But I am now with Hamro Sansar.

[i] Lagankhel and Jawalakhel are places in Lalitpur district
[ii] Small three-wheeler vehicles common for traveling, particularly in Nepal and India