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Street Children and Youth Get a Chance in India

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OCTOBER 2007 — "I ran away when I was 12 years old," says Shekhar Saini, 20, just back from leading a television crew on the "City Walk" tour in New Delhi, India, last October. The path he took them on marks where he and tens of thousands of other street children have lived, dodged police, slept, and collected rubbish around the main railroad station near the city's commercial center.

Shekhar now works for Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT), which in 2007 celebrated almost 20 years of providing services to street children in New Delhi. Shekhar represents one of the project's many success stories. "The tours are a good way for me to practice my communication skills," he says in flawless English, learned mostly from project volunteers. "It raises awareness of what street kids do, how they actually live. And, it raises money for the project" (tourists pay a fee of 200 Rupees).

After running away, Shekhar rode a train 22 hours from a distant part of India, arriving at the Delhi train station. He lived at the station for a year before an SBT counselor persuaded him to go to one of the shelters. "He said I would have a safe place to sleep, food, activities, and even a TV. It was the TV that really got me." Shekhar flashes a winning smile, his dark eyes twinkling from the memory.

Shekhar Saini, youth worker at Salaam Baalak Trust
Shekhar Saini, 20, pauses during his workday at Salaam Baalak Trust.

The project began in 1989 after the success of the film Salaam Bombay. The film addressed the plight of street children in Bombay and was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film. Three staff members along with trustees inspired by the film began working with 25 children in the open-air balcony at the police station at the New Delhi Railway Station. Since 1999, Family Health International, with funding from USAID, has provided technical assistance to Salaam Baalak Trust on HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

The project has expanded over the years to include education, medical and nutrition assistance, recreation, vocational training, and HIV/AIDS prevention information. Today, it operates five outreach contact points mostly near the train station; four shelters; a 24-hour toll-free helpline service for children in distress; and multiple linkages with groups providing vocational training, product marketing, and other services such as appropriate unification of families. A staff of more than 100 works with some 5,000 children every year.

Adolescents and younger children at a makeshift school next to a train station
These adolescents and younger children are at a makeshift school at the Salaam Baalak Trust contact site beside the Delhi Train Station.

Salaam Baalak Trust won a Civil Society Award in 2006 from the National AIDS Control Organization and UNAIDS. The project offers lessons for the growing number of efforts to assist orphans and other extremely vulnerable children. These lessons include:

  • Using a highly visible cultural event (Salaam Bombay) to attract support from multiple donors and referral organizations
  • Developing a volunteer recruitment system for young idealists from abroad and local professionals
  • Providing holistic, multi-dimensional services
  • Supporting children as they become adolescents with vocational education and other opportunities

In October 2007, the same open-air balcony where Shekhar arrived years ago is the landing spot for a young brother and sister. A dedicated doctor explains to a visitor the various services the project will offer to them, as volunteers and staff integrate the siblings into a makeshift morning school lesson. About 15 students sit on a thin cloth on a concrete floor; the older of the two new children slowly writes the alphabet on a tablet.

Meanwhile, a kilometer away in one of the crowded shelters, Shekhar Saini is about to head to a play practice. "I still have a lot of challenges," he says, reflecting a bit on some of the risky behaviors of his past. "But I have to give my best." In the upcoming annual Salaam theatrical celebration, Shekhar says he is playing an "intelligent donkey." His eyes dance with fun. "I talk like a politician. How rich people exploit the poor. It has a lot of humor."

FHI began assisting Salaam Baalak Trust after a 1996 study among 100 street children at the railway station found that 86 percent of the older boys (ages 14 to 20) were sexually active. A 2001 study among 500 children and key informants found that older boys often frequented sex workers and used drugs. Most lacked medical treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

Since 2006, as part of USAID's SAMARTH project, FHI has also supported basic needs of the children and youth, the development of a quality assurance and improvement plan for the project, strategic behavior communication initiatives, and the project's goal to serve as a model for other organizations working on HIV prevention among vulnerable youth and children.

 — Photos and story by William Finger