1.3 Livelihood of street children and their contribution to societyThe main source of income for the street children are waste plastic, milk packets, oil pouches, broken plastic buckets, bottles, pieces of copper, tin and iron. They collect these items from neighborhoods and streets, and earn their daily bread and butter by selling them.
If street children hadn’t collected the waste from our surrounding, it would have created a serious problem. For instance, diseases would spread and epidemics would break out. So, in a way, street children are relieving city-dwellers from health hazards; they are also assisting the metropolitan authorities with waste management. However, they are still disregarded and looked down upon.
The trend of disrespecting and abusing street children by referring them as khate[i] and chor[ii] still continues. Although they assist the metropolitan authorities with waste management, there are no programs to support these children. Their contribution to waste management should be evaluated, and the metropolitan authorities should make the necessary provision for their health, security, skill and education. City-dwellers should change their outlook on street children because they are directly contributing to their good health. In the present scenario, it would be difficult to imagine a healthy and clean city in the absence of these children. If only they didn’t collect the waste for 10 days, the city environment would be so polluted that cholera and other epidemics would break out. Then, on the other hand, waste metal items collected by these children are proving direct employment opportunities to many individuals and organizations[iii]. However, street children receive no dividend. Social bodies which are directly benefiting because of the street children are only creating an adverse situation for these children. They only think about their gains and benefit. They do not feel indebted towards the street children, or acknowledge them, in any way.
What would happen if street children stopped collecting waste metal items? How much money would metropolitan authorities have to invest in metal and waste collection? What would happen to factories that run because of the items street children collect? How would the health of city-dwellers be affected? These questions need serious thought and consideration. It’s time for those who are benefiting directly because of the street children to change their negative outlook on them. In fact, the role of street children in environment conservation appears to be important.
Street children get actively involved in door-to-door waste collection and management activities from a very young age. The children who once used to collect waste by carrying a sack on their back are now going around blowing whistles and collecting waste, and contributing directly to society. Only, their working style has changed. But the street children are negatively affected now. Previously, streets used to be littered with rubbish everywhere, and the metropolitan waste management department usually collected the garbage very late. So the street children got to collect waste plastic and sell it for money. But now, people are not allowed to throw garbage wherever they like, and the metropolitan waste management department collects the waste from designated areas early in the morning. This has endangered the street children’s waste-collection occupation. Therefore, they are forced to get involved in negative activities, including theft, robbery and prostitution. While some children are involved in waste management, the younger children beg on the streets. Some others are still struggling to make a living by collecting and selling waste plastic from the streets.
Though waste management is important from the environmental perspective, we should not forget about the other side of the coin. When the occupation of street children is endangered, they are driven towards negative activities, which is certain to appear as a major problem for the State. The government should, therefore, think of alternatives in time.
Given below is a summary of the daily activities of the street children:
- They search for waste plastic from 6 in the evening until midnight.
- After midnight, some of them sleep on the streets, while others return to their respective organizations; some even go to junkyards.
- They wake up at 4-5 in the morning, go out again in search of waste plastic and sell the collected plastic from 8 to 10.
- After selling the collected items, they go out for the day, watch movies or get engaged in other forms of entertainment.- They finish their money by buying meat, gambling, watching movies, going out and by purchasing clothes, alcoholic drinks and dendrite.