Vol. XVI Issue 2 April - June 2012 2012 Documentation ... - Nipccd

24. SATHI (Society for Assistance to Children on Difficult
Situation, Kanpur. (2009).
Survey of children on railway platforms Allahabad railway station.
Kanpur: SATHI.10p. www.sathiindia.org
Background: Platform children, according to UNICEF, are those for whom more
than the family , platform had become the real home , a situation in which there
is no protection, supervision or direction from responsible adults. Majority of
these children stay at the railway platform and work for their living. Since there
is no system of keeping a track of the children landing at the railway station,
these children are quite mobile and keep roaming around the station and nearby
areas.
Objectives: To estimate the number of new children coming to the railway
station per day; understand the situation of children at the Allahabad Railway
Station; understand the reasons of leaving home; to check the inflow of children
and their movement in and around the railway station; finding out the number of
old children at the station.
Methods: Questionnaires were prepared for collecting information from children.
Most of the children were above 10 years of age.
Findings: Survey was carried out at Allahabad. About 95 children were
contacted. On day one 49 children were surveyed while on day two it was 27
and on third day it decreased to 19. Maximum number of children belonged to
the age group of 11-15 years (64%) ; 30 per cent children belonged to the age
group of 5-10 years and seven per cent were in the age group of 16-18 years.
62 per cent children had arrived in a day and very few out of them had stayed
for few days; 10 per cent of children had been staying on the plat form from one
month to five months; 18 per cent of the children belonged to the age group of
one-two years; five per cent of the children belonged to the age group of 3-4
years and seven per cent of the children belonged to the age group of 7-11
years; 42 per cent of the children had ran away from their homes for the first
time; 19 per cent children had ran away for the second time; while eight per cent
had ran way more than three times and 32 per cent children had ran away more
than four times. 78 per cent of the children who had landed on the plat form had
both parents, whereas 11 per cent of children had single parents; about 12 per
cent of children were orphans.
Key Words : 1.DESTITUTE CHILD 2.STREET CHILDREN 3.RAILWAY
PLATFORM 4.RAILWAY STATION 5.CHILD PROTECTION 6.CHILDREN IN
NEED OF CARE AND PROTECTION 7.REHABILITATION 8.EXPLOITATION
9.CHILDREN IN DIFFICULT SITUATION 10.RUN AWAY CHILDREN
11.ALLAHABAD.
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DCWC Research Bulletin Vol. XVI April - June 2012