Rainbow home adopts 1,600 street children

Lingampally: Rainbow Home in a bid to help street children and give them a semblance of normal life adopted 1600 children. The NGO conducted a survey on street children on the eve of International Day for children. 

According to the survey, children were found begging, rag picking, working at roadside eateries and some were found hanging with other older children. The survey revealed that the children were living risky situations facing sexual, drug and physical violence. 

Speaking to The Hans India, Rainbow Home head manager Krishna said, “we had to start from square one and teach them how to use tooth brush, toilet, importance of daily bath, clean clothes and clean nails. The children faced problems sitting in a class room so we them through a crash course with the support of Sarva Shikhsa Abhiyan (SSA), and then sent them to regular school.”

In collaboration with the SSA, more than 3000 children reached 10 partner NGOs of Balyamitra Network. Among them, 1400 have been reintegrated with their families, they have found jobs or are in higher education. Currently, 1600 are still under this community-based care in public systems, Krishna added. “In 2015, a study was conducted by Rainbow Homes programme and partners of Balyamitra Network (BMN).

 It was supported by Save the Children and DFED. More than 28,000 children deprived of responsible adult care and protections were profiled in the twin cities. These children were also supposed to be covered under the four steps mentioned in the UN’s General Comment: Commit to equality, Protect every child, Provide access to services and Create new solutions” he added. 

“Now it is time for us as concerned people for child rights to come up with workable strategies to support State government to implement child rights policies in scale for the children still on streets, as well as providing entitlements like birth, community, and domicile certificates to the children already rescued,” Krishna added.