Street Children
In Bihar, India's most lawless state, Karuna supports local charity People First, to run a project for street children living rough at Gaya Station. The Rescue Project tries to help these children recover their future. Encouraged by a well-liked cycle rickshaw driver, trusted by many of the kids, some children have started coming to a free open air afternoon school now running in a disused siding. For some it’s their only chance to learn to read and write. The school itself comprises a blackboard, a teacher, some shade from a tree and a chance for the kids to learn in safety.
Here, the kids sit smartly on the bare ground newly alive with attention for their teachers. It’s a pool of positivity in an impoverished place. They copy the Devanagri alphabet and help each other learn and understand. The atmosphere glows with their potential and the kids are suddenly kids again – excitable, being themselves and more responsive to kindness. Away from the railway platforms, here at last, they can be children. Many spoke with gratitude for being in safety, where other people don’t mean imminent danger.
Ratan Akash is probably about 13. “It’s home. It’s freedom for me. I can’t remember when I first came here, or where I used to live. I only know that the police knocked down our hutment and told us to get out. It was too hard to stay with Mum because she had no money and beat me when I asked for food. ‘If you want to eat then go and get some money’ she’d say. I dream of earning enough so that I can live in a house. With a tin roof to keep out the rain."