Study on Street children in Bangalore

Though it points towards a major lacuna in our system, the issue of street children has notreceived serious attention from the government. The UNICEF estimates that there are about11 million children on the streets; this may or may not be correct, as this cannot be estimated easily. It is also realised that most of the work in terms of alleviating the difficulties facedby street children is being carried out by NGOs and other voluntary / missionary agencies.However, these organisations deal with it in the form of a local problem, tackling this problemin their locality through various projects. Literature review also reveals that no national attempthas been made to assess the scope of this issue; only case studies have been carried out.

Hence PAC has taken up a city wide study in Bangalore with the following objectives

1. to understand the extent of this problem through mapping
2. to identify the reasons or diagnose the causes for the presence of street children
3. to understand the roles played by current agencies, which are more curative in naturethan preventive measures
4. if possible, to find out if there can be preventive measures undertaken to minimise the exodus