Urban News

Indian Express 08.04.2010

After 225 street kids in 2 years, civic nest to take in more

Ajay Khape Tags : corporation, Gharte project Posted: Thursday , Apr 08, 2010 at 0107 hrs

Pune: Gharte project: PMC sets target of 225 more children, earmarks Rs 1 cr for year

From 2008, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) could bring 225 street children to four civic schools across the city under its Gharte (nest) project. With no let-up visible in number of such children at traffic junctions, the civic administration has set a target of 225 more children for this fiscal besides earmarking Rs 1 crore for the project.

“Over the past two years, we could admit 225 streetchildren to four of our centres. There are more such children who are unable to live a normal life and lack basic education and we want to bring more of them under this project,” said Vilas Kanade, acting chief of PMC Urban Community Development (UCD).

Though the civic body has not undertaken any scientific study to assess the children, he claimed that there had been a marked improvement in the living standards of these children under the care of the civic staff. “On the basis of our two-year experience and the rise in number of streetchildren, the civic body has for the first time allocated Rs 1 crore separately for the Gharte project. It plans to double the number of centres as well as children.”

The PMC runs the project through four non-governmental organisations, one each for every centre. It provides accommodation, food and education to the children.

The Karve Institute of Social Service had provided training to the Gharte project staff. “The PMC initiative for improving the life of streetchildren has been good as it shows its social responsibility. We were involved in training the staff but have no idea on the status of the project and its success,” said Asha Deshpande, programme director, Karve Institute. “We had proposed to monitor the project and suggest steps to improve it, but there has been no response from them.”

The NGOs are responsible for convincing the parents of such children to get them registered under the project and admit them to the schools. “It’s a tough job convincing the parents to send their wards to schools as most of these children contribute to the family income,” said Poonam, a social activist working for the project.

She said the streetchildren had no basic etiquette and were prone to delinquent activities. The only way to bring them to the mainstream is through education. Now, the civic body is looking at more NGOs to take up the project at the proposed centres.