Let’s get all gooey eyed over ‘the future of the nation’ once more. The buzz on some English language TV channels this weekend has been about the sudden realisation that India has forgotten about planning for children in the urban slums. Children living in city slums are far more vulnerable and at risk than kids who frolic around in villages, they simpered. “Forgotten Voices”, a report brought out by the NGO ‘Save the Children’ and supported by Price Waterhouse Cooper says, that among other indicators, that 70 % of child workers reported physical abuse and 32% sexual abuse, while some 54% of street kids were sexually abused.

But Bihar based child rights organisations have been saying these things for the past two decades or more. Of course, when a pricy corporate entity rephrases the same things, it obviously has more ‘news value’.

“The key to addressing issues such as protection of the children not only from abuse and crimes against them, but also from misuse of children by adults so that they commit crimes, lies with both state and central governments. This is what we have been saying for decades,” says well known child rights activist Sanat Sinha. “The city will continue to attract migrant labourers and runaway children alike. It is for the government to become more pro-active build up partnership with civil society to address issues of child safety and protection.”

It’s not just about protection and crime, urban slum kids are sidelined in government planning for education, health, sanitation, and access to drinking water as well, and it is the unorganised, labouring, parents of these children that keep the heart of the city beating. They are the ones who provide us the semi-skilled and unskilled labour, the maids, the household help, the minor yet essential services of ironing, mending, car-washing, and so on.

Patna is the only city in Bihar with a million plus population. The city development plan (2010-2030) put forward by the Department of Urban Housing and development, estimates that Patna has about 28,955 informal vendors catering to daily needs of residents spread across the city. It also mentions 108 slums. A majority if these vendors, living in slums, are the constituency for NIDAN, and others, who have been working on their issues for almost two decades.

Another report, ‘City Development Plan For Patna Under JNNURM’ (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) says ‘it is estimated that 63.5% of the PUA (Patna Urban Area) population reside in slums. The PUA comprises of 146.16 sq. km of land. With PUA population estimated at 22.5 lakhs and growing, the approximate number of slum dwellers on the basis of the report would be about 14 lakh 18 thousand. As a rule of thumb, a third of that population would be under 18 years of age.

A slum, for the purpose of census, has been defined as a residential area where dwellings are unfit for human habitation owing to dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangements and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation facilities or any combination of these factors detrimental to safety and health.

“These slum dwellers are overlooked, and often unreached by the basic amenities and even the fundamental entitlements that the government hands out to the poor,” days Devesh Lal from the Viva City Network, a coalition of faith-based organisations supporting educational initiatives in several of Patna’s slums. “The police and civil society look at the slums as dens of vice and crime. So just imagine the disadvantage and prejudice the children of the slums face. Apart from this, their very homes are treated as encroachments and are constantly under threat of being bulldozed. So a deep sense of insecurity that runs through a slum. Imagine what it is for a small child to grow up in such an environment of insecurity. It is similar to the stress on kids living in a war zone or in refugee camps,” Lal adds.

Bihar is arguably the first state in India to envision and implement a slum policy. In 2013, our Urban development and housing minister claimed that under the policy, around 56 slums of 28 towns had been selected for putting in place the basic amenities like drinking water, proper sewerage, power and toilets in the first phase. While the quality of implementation is open to debate, there is little doubt that the giving due importance to urban planning keeping in mind the future of Bihar’s slum children is the right foot forward on the state’s long journey of resurgence.

-Frank Krishner

  child abuse, Child labour, child rights, Dateline Bihar, Frank Krishner