FOR THE CHILDREN

With more than a third of its population below the age of 18, India has the largest child population in the world. India has made some significant commitments towards ensuring the basic rights of children. There has been progress in overall indicators: infant mortality rates are down, child survival is up, literacy rates have improved and school dropout rates have fallen. But with regard to protection of children rights India has a long way to go as we hear so much of atrocities and ill treatment of child both in the family and in the school. Many children are abused, ill-treated, trafficked, laboured and even murdered. The district of Salem continues to be a market for child labourers. Thus the Salem Don Bosco Anbu Illam is working at its best to ensure that the children rights are protected and guaranteed. There are many works and projects that are executed especially for the children.

The large number of homeless children, pavement dwellers, street and working children and child beggars, left on their own and in need of care and support, is an urban phenomena of great concern. Today many people move to the cities to look for employment and they end up living in unhygienic and inhuman conditions. Many of them are deprived of basic necessities. In this situation, children suffer the most. A vast majority of them, with or without parental support, end up at traffic intersections, railway stations, streets, etc., and become victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Inhuman and violent life conditions turn many of these children into law offenders, criminal, drug abusers and exploiters themselves. Thus, in order to provide for the growing needs of these children, the central and state government of India had come up with the idea of setting up Open Shelters in Urban areas. These centres shall provide a space for children where they can play, use their time productively and engage themselves in creative activities.

In the Salem district the government had offered Don Bosco Anbu Illam to set up an Open Shelter. The shelter had been set up and is being funded by the government from 2004 onwards. The centre offers the facilities for the street and working children to fulfil their basic necessities and engage themselves in recreational activities. The centre also ensures the overall growth and development of the boys.

For more information visit http://wcd.nic.in/

A large number of children in need of care and protection who enter the juvenile justice system through the Child Welfare Committees are in need of residential care and protection during the pendency of any inquiry and subsequently for their long-term care, treatment, education, training, development and rehabilitation. Thus a reception home is set up in every district which serves as a home away from home and provide comprehensive child care facilities to children for ensuring their all-round development. In the district of Salem the government had entrusted Don Bosco Anbu Illam to set up the reception home. The children who are rescued by the Childline, the Juvenile Police or by any public are brought to the reception home and they stay there till they are either settled with their parents if they have or sent to a home if they don’t have parents. From 2009 onwards the reception home is supporting the marginalised and underprivileged children of the district of Salem.

Shelter is the immediate requirement for the run aways, street boys and vagrant children who are contacted in the Bus stations and Railway station. In 1988, a shelter was opened to provide merely shelter for the rag pickers. The rag pickers regularly visited Anbu Illam which changed their life and it was a place which gave confidence and security. As a development process, it provides formal and non-formal education for the children. The main shelter is known as Rehabilitation shelter. More than five hundred children have benefitted from Anbu Illam after getting formal and non-formal education. They are also provided with vocational training and guided to start self-employment programmes. At present 57 boys are sheltered and admitted in different schools and technical institutes for formal education. In 1997, one more shelter was opened at the foothills of Yercaud known as Preparatory shelter. The children under ten years are provided formal education and referred to rehabilitation shelter for higher studies. At present 39 children are getting educations with all their basic amenities. In 2011 another centre at Nilavaarapatty was started to provide shelter and medical facilities to HIV/AIDS infected children. At present 50 children are availing the services at the centre.

The children referred by the child right protection centre and the child line and HIV/AIDS infected children are taken care by these homes by providing food, accommodation, clothing, medical aids, recreational facilities, formal or non formal education, spiritual and moral activities etc. The children are accommodated in the shelter home till they complete their formal or non formal education. At present nearly 150 children are given accommodation and other necessary facilities in the shelter home to continue their education.

Homelink Network System is the World Wide Web and proprietary software to capture the information of children at risk across India to assist and restore them to the safety of a Home. www.homelink.in is a website specifically dedicated to ensure the restoration of children back ‘home’ and assist in tracing lost or missing children. The missing child search network is open to all organisations that serves the unaccompanied youngsters and is part of the Homelink Network.

In view of creating a link between the missing child and to their parents, website was created to serve children better especially for those who are in difficult circumstances. The data are uploaded regularly and missing child cases are followed up.

For further information visit http://homelink.in/

Getting quality education is the prime and fundamental rights of every child on earth. Due to negligence in the implementation of the government schemes and the economical condition of the family, children are denied their right to get quality education. Realising the magnitude of the problem we have identified 12 slums and night schools are being organized to ensure quality education for them and to create an opportunity to study better and equip them eventually to go for higher education.

The children parliament functions same as the national parliament. In the children parliament they identify some of the social problems in their area and come out with different suggestions to address the problems. In order to rectify the situation they also pass the resolutions in the parliament and give it in black and white to the government officials to take action on the same. It is basically aimed at ensuring the “Participatory Right” of children who are under privileged and marginalised.

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