This website is designed and maintained by former street children

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• STREET CHILDREN - WHO ARE THEY?

They are children who have run away from home or been forcibly thrown out, due to conflicts with parents, broken home, ill treatment by family members, or attracted to the city life through the mass media, mainly films. (Children come to SKCV for help as young as four years of age).

• WHERE DO THEY LIVE AND EAT?

Having run away from an intolerable environment, they are forced to live on the pavements, under bridges or make-shift shelters, eat from dustbins, or obtain food by begging (or stealing).

• WHAT DO THEY DO?

They are either rag pickers, or help out in small teashops, shine shoes or do myriad odd jobs. None attends school. Few have good health or future prospects. Many die an anonymous death.

• WHERE ARE THEY FOUND?

One sees them everyday in India; at bazaars, railway stations and bus stops - alone and ignored, shunned by society as if they do not exist. Most will eventually grow up to be social misfits and criminal elements created by an uncaring society - or just die in filthy corner or gutter.

• WHAT DO THEY REALLY LACK?

Somehow they manage to get food, shelter and clothes, by begging, borrowing, stealing or even selling their frail bodies (especially the young girls). What they cannot obtain is love, affection ... and security for the future. With love and affection their problems are almost solved, and they quickly begin to act like the normal children they really are.

• IS THERE ANY HELP AVAILABLE FOR THEM?

Unfortunately, they tend to be the most ignored members of the population of our planet. Though they are small children, they suffer from almost all the problems that we see itemized and isolated in our news. They are abused, hungry, sick, malnourished, exposed to the elements, terribly exploited, and more. SKCV provides the loving attention they need most.