Shobha Ramswamy

The red compartments of a long-distance train pull into Mumbai Central station. Oblivious to the ensuing pandemonium, Basavraj Utthnu stands in a corner, calmly scanning the platform. He is here neither to receive a loved one nor to bid a friend goodbye. His purpose is far more altruistic. As passengers scramble towards the exit, a teenager with a red knapsack on his shoulder catches Utthnu’s attention. Seemingly alone, the boy fishes out a tiny notepad from his bag and hesitantly approaches a coolie. Intuitively, Utthnu walks towards the boy.

Conversation with the boy reveals that he is Manik Mondal, a fifteen-year-old from Burdwan, West Bengal, who has come to Mumbai to meet his elder brother, an employee of a local hotel. Young Manik does not have his brother’s complete address, has no money and speaks only Bengali. He is vulnerable enough to fall into the wrong hands and suffer terrible consequences as a result. Fortunately for him, help is at hand. Utthnu immediately makes him comfortable and assures him that he is not alone. He also calls for a Bengali translator so that the boy can feel confident about his safety and hope to be united with his brother soon.

"It is all in a day’s work," says Utthnu, an officer with the Raichur-based Sathi or the Society for Assisting Children in Difficult Situations, which helps runaway or lost children to find their way home. Rarely do children realise the dangers that await the lone and lost on railway platforms. Generally, these children are confused, scared, insecure and uncomfortable in their new surroundings. Often, they may be found crying and huddled together in dark corners of the platform, unsure of what to do next. Even children who have run away from home sometimes lose their nerve.

Their vulnerability leads them to trust anyone who tries to befriend them. These ‘friends’ often morph into brokers for prostitutes or networks of beggars and child labourers. Often the desperate need to satisfy hunger pangs forces them to have recourse to begging or sweeping trains. The more enterprising ones begin to sell newspapers, mineral water etc or become shoeshine boys. Their earnings see them through. Sometimes they earn upwards of Rs 100 every day. But the constant threat of addictions to alcohol or drugs, apart from the fear of being swept into the world of crime, makes them deeply vulnerable. Caught in the web, the child’s innocence is lost forever.

Tracking runaways
Connecting the length and breadth of India, trains are the easiest mode of transport in India. "Railways give the child the freedom to alight and depart at will. In fact, in a year a runaway can travel the whole of this country. That is why, we operate only on the platforms as it is the first-point contact with the child," says Pramod Kulkarni, secretary and founder of Sathi. Officers of the organisation patrol the platforms of Mumbai Central, Wadi, Guntakal, Mantralaya, Pune, CST Terminus and Raichur.

Established in 1992, Sathi’s objective is to keep children away from railway platforms by providing them with food and shelter. Towards this end, the children were trained to repair bicycles and make agarbattis, skills that would do much to promote financial self-sufficiency. At times, they were placed as apprentices to bakers or printers. Despite the good intentions, the programme was not very successful. Many children chose to return to life on the platforms.

The experience was not without lessons for Sathi. Says Kulkarni, "We realised that we had not addressed the core problem. A child without a family is rootless. Only the love of a family and the security of a home can infuse stability into a child’s life." It was at this point that the organisation started home placements. Over the years, Sathi has repeatedly proved sceptics wrong by uniting over 3,400 children with their families back home.

A recent survey revealed that 82 per cent of the children who were sent home have made no second attempt to run away. The good intentions of Sathi are finally being justified. In Pune, Parshuram Sukhale’s eyes light up on seeing Dattatrey, his grandson. The boy, then studying in the ninth standard, had run away from home, following a tiff with his cousin.

Fortunately for the boy, Sathi officers picked him up on the very day he arrived at Pune station. Dattatrey’s family was informed of his whereabouts through a telegram. Meanwhile, Sukhale, a poor farmer, had spent a considerable amount of money looking for his grandson in nearby villages. After Sathi brought about an emotional reunion, Dattatrey confessed that he would never leave home again. "It is this touching heart-warming moment that keeps us going," says Lakshman Manjulkar, who has been working with Sathi’s Pune chapter for the last six years.

Locating homes
Eight-year-old Bharat Rajkumar had been living on railway platforms for over four months when Sathi picked him up at Raichur station. He had run away from his Latur home because his parents wanted to admit him to a hostel, a few miles away. Forced to keep body and soul together by begging, he confesses candidly, "I remember my mother. I want to go home, but I will not go the hostel. If they send me there, I will run away again."

On an average, at least five to eight children find their way to Pune station every day. The situation at other railway junctions is almost the same; the figures differ only slightly. Runaway boys far exceed girls (around five in a month). The reason for leaving home could vary from failing in a maths test to fearing punishment for stealing money from home. School-related issues are the most common excuses for leaving home. A large number of children come to the city in search of jobs to escape the harsh poverty of their homes. Some run away to become film stars, while others are attracted to the glitz and glamour associated with cities like Mumbai.

The organisation has worked with states like Assam, Bihar, Rajasthan. It has also worked in Nepal. It is normally believed that a runaway is either an orphan or comes from a broken or neglected home. Shattering the myth, Kulkarni discloses that in almost 80 per cent of the cases, the child has both parents alive and comes from a loving, warm home. "Exceptions do exist. But they are far and few between," he adds.

Another busted myth is that only children from poor homes run away from home. Actually, about 30 per cent of runaway children come from educated and well-to-do homes. Nine-year-old Sohan Prasad, son of a military officer, lived in the Pune Cantonment area. He was found at the Daund railway station, trying to catch a Bangalore-bound train. At the shelter, the child revealed that he had run away from home because his father had scolded him for not doing his school homework properly.

Sathi’s job isn’t simply a matter of asking children for addresses and sending them there. Children are known to lie or give incomplete addresses. In such cases, the Sathi officer takes the child to the shelter or police station (in the absence of a shelter). Every detail is recorded and the child is sent to the remand home. At the shelter or remand home, the child is not bombarded with questions. "We chat, play and relax with the child. The aim is to win the child’s trust," says Vidya Dhende, superintendent, Pune Remand Home. The parents are informed through phone calls or telegrams. Occasionally, the errant child is personally escorted home by a staff member and a police constable. R. S. Kondalkar, inspector, Pune Railway Police Station, agrees. He says, "There is a very thin line dividing the good from the bad on the platforms. In this context, Sathi’s work assumes great importance."

Building bridges
Irfan was five when he left home with some grownups. After nearly a decade on the platform, he remembers very little about his home and family. He has virtually travelled the whole country, sold newspapers and water and tried every drug available on platforms. Sathi camps helped him to break free of the vicious cycle, from which there seemed no escape.

Today, Irfan works as a counsellor with the organisation. His main function is to advise runaways to return home and to start attending school regularly. His only dream is to revisit his home and family.

Months or years on a platform can harden a child mentally. A child who has lived on the platform cannot be convinced to return home by mere words alone. One-month orientation camps are held to rejuvenate the dormant feelings of attachment to the family. The camps involve in-group counselling, meditation and various other fun activities. Very subtly, the hazards of a life lived on a railway platform are conveyed to the children. "Surprisingly, even after spending years on the platform, the child yearns to go home. Truly, there is no place like home," says Kulkarni of his experience from holding 50 such camps. Out of 301 children, who attended these camps during the past year, 268 children were successfully sent home.

Sathi spends almost Rs 2,000 to send a child home. To promote initiatives to educate out-of-school children, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust supports Sathi in its efforts to advise runaways to return home. The Trust has been partnering the organisation since 1996 and contributing over 50 per cent to its annual budget. Since then, the cumulative contribution has been to the tune of Rs 44 lakh through two grants. In the third phase, the Trust will disburse a grant of Rs 150 lakh in three years.

Every large city has its own population of runaway or lost children. Ideally the organisation needs to expand to all metro railway stations. Therefore, it has started partnering with other non-governmental organisations like Yuva, Childline and Don Bosco, among others, to bring about a synergy of efforts. High on the agenda are railway stations in places like Chennai, Nashik and Goa. "Remember," says Kulkarni, "a child is a child. And every child needs to be at home."

The joy that comes of effecting a successful reunion between children and their families encourages Sathi to continue at its worthy task. Its intervention has saved numerous children from being sucked into a dangerous world. For the homeless and lost child on the railway platforms, Sathi will ever be a real friend.

Uploaded on February 18, 2004