KARUNAGRAM ABODE FOR STREET CHILDREN
A street child is defined by the UNICEF as "any boy or girl . . . for whom the street in the widest sense of the word . . . has become his or her abode and/or source of livelihood and who is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults”. Through rehabilitation, AWARE aims to wean such children away from the streets to a path of responsible and all-round development. Karunagram, supported by AWARE, has been doing this for many years. Currently, there are 15 children at the centre, at Basana, a village near Mehsana in North Gujarat. A dedicated team lead by Sanjay-Tula takes care of these children like its own family. Karunagram is more like a foster family than a shelter home. For these children, this is their only family because their biological family is either not traceable or is not sufficiently responsible to care for them.
Now, Karunagram can also be proud of a beautiful building designed by a famous Ahmadabad-based architect, Mr. Nilkanth Chhaya. The building is not only good to look at but also has features such as a rainwater harvesting system to collect and store precious rain water in this semi-arid area of north Gujarat.
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A SUCCESS STORY:
Sachin De (name changed) is a young adult of 18-19. He has been supported by us for the past ten years for his rehabilitation and education. He has worked so well that, despite the innumerable difficulties faced by “street children” at schools, he has just taken his grade XII Board exams and is keen to study further.
As a child, Sachin lived in a Surat slum with his Bengali parents. When he was around five, Sachin’s father moved out to live with a second woman, leaving Sachin and his mother to fend for themselves. Sachin’s mother struggled to make a living but died due to a serious illness when he was probably around six.
He had to return to his father and the step mother. He was, however, not well received in this “new family”. He was forced to work and was taken out of school at the tender age of 7 or 8. He started selling chiki (sweet crackers) on trains. Once he fell asleep on the train and lost all his ‘chiki’ stock to a runaway thief. The father beat him for having incurred ‘a heavy loss in his business. This was the last straw on the camel’s back compelling him to leave home.
Suddenly, he became a “street child” and travelled by train to Ahmedabad and was contacted by Ahmedabad Childline. After the initial care, protection and counselling, Sachin was placed at a school. Initially, he went to Fatehpura’s Ashram Shala (a rural residential school) and was then transferred to “Karunagram”, the street children rehabilitation project supported by AWARE near Mehsana. Today, he is in grade XII and lives happily with the other children in the ‘children’s village’.
We have plans for Sachin to do his Bachelor’s Degree in Rural Studies at Lok Bharati, Sanosara, which offers one of the best courses in rural studies in Gujarat. After the three-year course, we are prepared to support him for a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad.
Sachin has been with us since he was eight; today he is about 19. Consistent care and sustained inputs from three different organisations has shaped a quiet but confident young man from a vagrant on the railway platforms who could have fallen prey to anti-social elements without our support.