Children of the Streets in Goa
The Common Goan Attitude to Street children
If one talks to the common Goan about street children, the most common reaction
would be one of indifference and perhaps a feeling of being threatened by them.
This issue, most Goans feel, is not their ‘problem’ - it is a problem of the
outsiders, i.e. migrants, and created by these outsiders. This is a typical
attitude of people in Goa, to the street children.
This stigma of ’outsider‘ is hard to live with, especially if the person is
poor; and migration is mostly poverty driven. It is immaterial from where
the outsider is; New York, New Delhi or Timbuctoo; Poverty strips you of all
rights. Who has ever heard a poor migrant voicing his rights? But then, the poor
migrant is pretty useful in doing our back-breaking jobs, otherwise it is most
convenient that they are neither seen or heard.
The International Scene
While virtaully all governments have signed the United Nations International
Covenant on Childrens Rights, no practical measures have been taken to make the
Covenant a reality. Reports of gross violations of human rights , abuses that
include kidnapping , rape, murder, torture are reported with frightening
regularity by the Amnesty. While acknowledging the rights of the children as
sacrosanct, practically precious little is done to see that the knowledge of
these rights and mechanisms of redressal in cases of violations, are made
available to the children themselves.
Violation of children's rights are on the rise. This is true for all countries,
right from those who are on the lowest rung of the developmental ladder, to the
one’s on the top. While we talk about infanticides in our country, one child
is killed every hour in the United States of America. In 1991, 5,356 young
Americans died of gunshot wounds, and a child growing up in America is fifeteen
times more likely to be shot dead than a child in strife torn Northern Ireland.
Time magazine of May 4, 1992, reported on a survey funded by the US
Federal Govt. and published by the National Victim Centre estimated that more
than 12 million women have been raped atleast once in their life, 61 % of them
were younger than 18 at the time of the assault, and 30% had not reached
their 11th birthday.So this is again a myth that literacy and high income levels
automatically obtain children their rights.
So what social conditions or context should one seek in which children’s
rights are respected. It seems improbable that this issue can harldy be
addressed without refering to individuals social and moral resposibilities. This
also requires that some state powers be devolved to the community for speedy
redressal to the victims. Otherwise not much will be achieved in the presently
dismal situation of children’s rights, and the violators will keep on taking
advantage of a crippled judicial system and corruption, to continually brazen
violations.
The Changing Systemm
The shift from community based systems to individualistic survival modes, and
the rapid dissolution of traditional values, have made children
particularly vulnerable. Today, commercialisation is driving both parents to
work, and thus leave their children for a substantial part of the day, in the
care of relatives or someone else. This makes the child exposed to physical and
sexual abuse. Research studies state that in nearly 80% of
child-abuse cases, the victim knew the abuser. These findings point to
vulnerability of children and a disregard for their basic right to bodily
integrity even in what is percieved as relatively safe family environs. No
children are truly safe from abuse. However, the situation of street childen is
far worse. Even their basic minimum rights of food and shelter are denied.
New cyberspace communication systems have made a phenomenal array of pornograhic
materal easily accessible, and made commerical sex easily available, with deals
being made over the internet. Literally, there are thousands of websites
catering to people with preference for child sex. Who are these children who
sell their bodies and why do they do so ? They are the poor and
uneducated, who seasonaly or permanently migrate to trade and commerce intensive
zones, because of various reasons. As agriculture becomes commercially unviable,
forced displacement takes place, to make space for large developmental projects,
and traditional rights are abrogated for commercial exploitation. These are the
people who are actually paying the price of development, selling their labour
for a pittance, and hence becoming target of our base instincts .
The Goan Scene
It is extremely disconcerting that Goa is becoming a destination for Paedophiles.
This was reported to Children’s Rights in Goa (CRG) by an officer of the
British High Commission, that internationally, Goa is a known destination of sex
tourism. This type of tourism is related to the seasonal and permanent migration
of people from the neibouring states of Karnataka and Maharashtra, who flock to
the tourist intensive areas in seach of livelihood; and are not averse to
forcing their young, into commercial sex. But that is only one part of the
sordid economic reality, as people of the state, by and large, have apparently
deluded themselves into thinking that this is an outsiders problem. Kick them
out and all will be fine, forgetting that a majority of those who were forced
into the trafficking network of Freddy Peats were not of the migrant families
but from the state itself.
The state too, has shown callous regard, and the conduct of some it’s
functionaries, has been positively criminal. This was well illustrated in the
Freddy Peats case, when the government agencies, related with the investigation,
tried to sweep the case under the carpet. Among those who publicly and covertly
conspired to deny justice to the juvenile victims, as well as destroy documents
and evidence in the case, were the State Advocate General and the Trial Judge,
as suggested by the investigation” It was only the dogged tenacity of noted
jurist, Sheela Barse, that finally got Freddy Peats eventually convicted. What
chances then, do ordinary citizens have, especially those who are poor and
uneducated.
Strategies
What stategies are then open for the common people to make sure that
children’s rights - for the migrants as well as for the locals- are protected.
A number of citizens have been voicing the need to change the pattern of
tourism. They certainly do not want Goa to go the way of Thailand.
To address this need, CRG has tried to form people‘s support groups in the
beach areas, to keep a watch on suspicious liasons between foreign tourists and
children. While a number of cases were reported, nothing much could be done, as
the police always quoted the need for hard evidence disregarding that they being
the law enforcement body were themselves inefficient.
Another strategy was to start open schools. CRG, has been working for
children’s rights, especially with street and working children. Its aim is to
help them to obtain an awareness of child abuse, especially sexual,
besides fullfilling their basic right to education through its presently
operated 4 open schools. Do we not need to relook at the community justice
methods and empower those mechanisms?
Street Children in Goa
Displacement & poverty in the neighbouring states of Goa, are two compelling
reasons for migration that leads to the phenomena of street children here.
UNICEF defines & differentiates between children who work on the streets but
go back to their shelter for the night as "children off the street"
vis a vis the the children who spend days & nights on the street &
hence known as "children on the street’s".
These children take flight from their homes, because living in the site of
despair, becomes too much for them to handle, Life on the streets, seems
an infinitely better choice. Attempts to send them back are not implemented if
they are against it, because they will simply run away again, ruining the work
being done with them.The streets offer an escape from oppression, from the
people who are supposedly their protectors.
Migrants who work in white collar jobs blend easily into the Goan
environment,while on the other hand the poor, stick out like sore thumbs in our
glittering market places, as workers covered with dust and sweat, as children
dressed in rags, rummaging through the garbage. Everyone wants to stay away from
them. They are truly the lowest rung in our materialistic and capitalistic
socity, excluded from the mainstream culture.
There is a considerable influx of seasonal migrants from the
neighbouring States of Karnataka and Maharashtra, during the tourist season. We
have a notion that definitions and classifications are sacred. But there is no
reason why a tourist himself cannot be classified as a seasonal migrant, though
the reasons of the tourist’s migration are entirely different from the poverty
driven person in search of subsistence. But the popular perceptions to both
types of migrants are radically different. What does a tourist give to the state
as a rich migrant; and what do the poor migrants give or take from the state?
The common factor being, both are consumers and both spend money in the economy,
though the former may spend substantially more than the latter. While the
labourer from the other state, creates value in most cases by selling his
labour, the tourist transfers the value of his accumulated surplus labour into
the local economy, when he pays through his savings.
The effect of touristic transactions increases
the money supply in the markets, and hence would effect a price rise in the
general commodities. The main characteristic of the migrant labour is not
expenditure on conspicuous consumption, but service. It is beyond the scope of
this paper to establish real impact of both these migrants on the state economy.
However it is undoubted that the poor migrant does make some positive
contribution to the state economy, whereas the dollar tourist is mainly a
consumer of the best produce at ridiculously low prices because of the exchange
value of his currency inflated by an exploitative international monetary system.
In a limited supply situation the food prices will definitely get pushed
up. While we welcome one with open arms, we are uncomfortable at the sight of
the other, not quite sure of our responses, because the flip side of the coin,
will only reflect the sum total of our greed, big or small.
Growth of tourism as a major industry and the phenomenon of seasonal migrant job
seekers, is quite recent. No studies have been made to establish the incidence
of this migration. One thing, however is certain that this migration is on the
increase, so is the corresponding phenomenon of street children, which is
expected only to grow.
Another phenomenon that is associated with tourism and migration, is that Goa
seems to be fast becoming a destination for sex holiday seekers. While
paedophilia is known to occur in all sections of society, it’s association
with tourism and influx of migrants who are willing to sell the bodies of their
young, has been expressed time & time again. Those who put the blame
on the migrants for this, ignore the responsibility of the tourists, the need
for a livelihood,the role of pornography, the number of people who make a fast
buck in the chain of the well-organised racket, and the people who simply turn
their head the other way, pretending as if it did not exist, makes the migrant
child a mere victim and at best an innocent accomplice.
The expressed views are not a negation of tourism
or tourists. In the present context of our destructive ability; cross cultural,
cross-national interactions are essential for fostering understanding among us
human beings; but unfortunately these are happening on very unequal terms. In
Goa, where one sees both ends of the scale; power of the dollar and
helplessness of the penniless; coming together for opportunistic transactions,
both can be expected to pay little regard to the cultural values of the host
population. While the tourist is still accepted as someone who brings money and
increases employment, the reactions to other type of migrant can vary, from
hostility to indifference. Only a minuscule minority of Goans, would consider
street children as their problem too and accordingly intervene to help them by
way of resources or education. Any such individual or organisation therefore
faces a strong resistance by the way of general attitudes. This resistance,
however may not be openly expressed, but works at different levels, as one field
worker with a children’s organisation, pointed out, that while conducting
classes for street children in open public areas, they often came under public
ridicule for trying to mingle these ’outside‘ children with their ’own‘.
With Street Children, are associated popular images of them being
uneducated,illiterate,petty thiefs,uncouth,drugaddicts,useless,dressed in rags,
who speak harshly and use filthy language,etc. Our perceptions of street
children are predominantly based on superficial externalities and observations,
as only a few of us have ever stepped into their world, to see what kind of
intelligence and skills are required to survive. We will realise from a
closer inspection, that it will certainly need guile, ingenuity, worldly wisdom,
street smartness, to make everyday survival a reality. If intelligence is about
adaptation, then one thing is certain, that their tenacity to survive as a
child on the streets, is worthy of admiration.
Perhaps the most singular imporant factor that shapes peoples responses to the
street children is the stereotyped images, and hence the knee jerk responses,
while refusing to admit that these children are equally intelligent and perhaps
more capable in many ways, than the children brought up in protective family
environments, where every need of their’s is catered to. There is an
interesting instance of a friend, who, in one of the workshops organised for
children, commented that she did not have any pity for these
children, thus raising a lot of eyebrows over her lack of concern for them.
People thought this was shocking, but were subsequently relieved to discover
that she respected them, empathised with them, admired them for
their guts of steel, by stating "These children survive in conditions in
which I would probably die."
First and foremost, we need to be compassionate
when we look at the situation of disadvantaged children. But pity is a
fatalistic trap. It is reductionist in the sense it reduces the child to the
status of a mere victim, and somehow the totality of his/her human existence
gets buried as ‘a victim of circumstances’ view point. The trap is
reinforced everytime we reach into our pockets to toss a coin at the
begging child; but we will never really intervene in unjust situations, like
forced employment, unequal remuneration, physical abuse, emotional trauma;
because we feel distant from them, since they are not ’our‘ problem.
In Goa, in the definitional sense, such children are ’off‘ the street, as
most of them do revert back to their shelters { a piece of plastic sheet over
their head}. What is compelling of street children everywhere, is their
imperative need, not only for self-survival, but also of making a contribution
to the family income. The children who come to open schools run by Children
Rights in Goa, come from large families, with meager monthly income,
ranging from Rs.1000 to Rs.2000 - thus forcing them to earn money,
for which they spend a major part of their time, foraging on streets, or moving
from one petty occupation to another. As stated by Greg of Jan Ugahi - an
organistion working with children in need - that children who come to their
Center, pursue a number of vocations such as selling plastic bags in the market,
carrying small loads for shopkeeepers and shoppers, collecting scrap, selling
fish, working in tea shops, restaurants and garages, selling peanuts and
ice-creams during football matches. Except for those working in garages,
most of these children will stay trapped in these unskilled occupations, without
much likelihood of moving to a better means of livelihood.
Interestingly, a large number of them want to work as helpers in garages, as
this offers them some scope of upward mobility. Nearly all of them express
aspirations that are not related to formal education; and a large number of them
expressed their ambition to be drivers, mechanics and tailors, reflecting
a maturity of thinking, as they accept white collar job positions as
unreal aspiration for them.
Keeping this in mind, any orientation of the
educational programmes, apart from imparting essential awareness and literacy,
will have to design and apply educational modules that will help the children
move towards their aspired goals. If children have to be rivetted to schools,
then vocational training becomes almost indispensable. Education for them, must
have survival value. If it does not, then it is nothing but empty
romanticisation of well meaning but ineffective individuals and organisations.
To some extent experiments done in other regions can be appropriate models for
replication, especally in the areas of literacy and numeric learning, but the
larger curricullae will involve choices: a lot of which can be improvised through
experimentation. This is a crucial area of multidisciplinary and collaborative
research. For instance, a problematic learning situation at the classroom level,
can be refered to various levels of expertise, before a solution is found, in
terms of novel instructional approach or expressive and explanatory tools. In
most tricky learning situations, once the capacity of the teacher is exhausted,
it is likely that the teacher will ignore the problem, as she perhaps will feel
that this reflects her inadequacy. This is thus a very crucial area of
research in which the researchers and grassroots workers must build sustained
contacts with institutions that can facilitate such contacts and experiments, as
radically new approaches are needed for effective and meaningful education.
There have been frequent complaints from field workers about research people
coming and gathering facts and information, and once they have written
and published their papers, they simply disappear. In most cases, a
researcher’s agenda is very divergent from the actual needs of the subjects of
the research. There is the further problem of accessing the research material.
As most of the children are compelled to stay
close to market places, organisations and individuals who have been working with
these children, have extremely difficult times, in finding space close to these
commercial centres to hold educational sessions with these children, because of
common attitudes such as ’the children are a nuisance‘, ’they are
dirty‘, which may well be true as shanties have little access to proper
amenities. CRG has encountered this on several occasions with various people in
different situations. A formal school had given one of its classrooms for CRGs
open school, after the regular school hours. A number of parents are said to
have protested to the Principal, saying that the street children were dirty and
their own children would contact various diseases from these unclean,lice-ridden
children. As a result, the open schools themselves have been migrating from one
place to another. This is one main operational difficulty in their functioning.
A few times when the teachers tried to hold open school in a public garden, as a
stop gap arrangement, they stated that onlookers usually ridiculed their
efforts.
Teachers of the open schools for street children in Goa, at times find it
difficult to underscore the free and independent spirit of these children,
making the task of imparting education tough. If harsh measures are adopted, the
children simply will not come to the schools. Teachers are further handicapped
by diverse age groups and culturally different students that sit in a single
class room. To apply a single curriculum in such a situation is inappropriate.
At the same time within the frequent constraints that are encountered, it is not
possible for the teachers to give personal attention to each and every case. In
these open schools, the drop out rates are high.
In Goa, it is heartening to note that increasing
number of people have expressed concern and responded humanly to help the street
children. For a consistent effort to meet the educational needs of children,
considerable amount of resources, ingenuity and culture specific syllabus is
required, and a lot depends on the teacher who plays a pivotal role in
this. As little can be expected from the families of the children, in terms of
resources, most of it has to be raised through conscientisaion of the
communities or through organisations that fund children’s project. In either
case,the work of the teacher is perceived as that of a social worker and not
professional. Usually it is a partime job that pays little , and the demands of
teaching in an open school can be far more than that of a formal set up.
Experience has shown that this has resulted in frequent turnover of teachers,
adversely affecting the continuity of the educational programmes for the
children. This further leads to high turnover of students coming to these
schools, which start functioning more like crèches, where learning is fun, but
the long-term perspective of education, gets knocked out, and children come
there for several reasons other than education.
While funds have been made available to a number of NGOs for working among the
street children and a few of them like CRG and Asha Sadan - a voluntary
organisation working among the children of Baina sex workers, near Vasco city -
did get a number of children enrolled in the formal schools, but to no lasting
effect, as most of them drop-out for several reasons. This again underscores the
importance of contextual influences and education as not a simple matter of
being able to pay the school fees.
Responsibility! The need of the hour is to persistently question and probe who
is responsible for the over-all growth & development of these children.The
buck has to stop somewhere otherwise the legacy for tomorrow will be as dismal
as today.
Address: Children's Rights in Goa, F -5 Meera Bldg, Near Gomantak Bhavan, St Inez, Goa, 403001, India
Tel: 91-832-2426518/2420141
EMail: mailto:crg@goatelecom.com
Website: www.goa-world.com/crg/
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