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Championing the child's cause
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Fr. Philip Parakatt The Don Bosco director has been in the forefront of efforts at rehabilitating street children. In a chat with S. Anil Radhakrishnan
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AJOINT effort by voluntary organisations and the Government along with steps to create strategies for effective rehabilitation of street children is the needs of the hour, says Fr. Philip Parakatt, director of Don Bosco, the leading NGO working among street children in the State capital.
The growing drug abuse among street children in the city gives grave cause for concern, as almost all the children use one or other type of addictive substances, he points out.
As much as 30 to 40 per cent of the children use the addictives perpetually. A disturbing trend is that they go after easily available addictives such as whiteners and petroleum-based glues. Broken families, unhappy situations and use of drugs by the head of the family are the main reasons why the children turn to the streets, he says. Poverty is only a secondary cause.
Pointing out that school dropouts form 80 per cent of street children, Fr. Parakatt says Don Bosco had been concentrating on the education and health aspects of the children living in slums.
"The attitude of the police towards the street children as habitual offenders had changed over the years. Overall, they are cooperating with our work,'' he says.
Fr. Parakatt says the relatives of the street children should be retraced and the children reunited with their families so that they do not return to the streets again.
``As many as 290 children were rehabilitated this year in institutions and families. The repatriation was as far off as Bihar, Mumbai and Vijayawada'', he says.
Hailing from Kannur, Fr. Parakatt, a first rank holder in MSW from the University of Madras, the efforts to tackle child labour in the city are hampered by the fact that the child labourers are non-Malayalis hailing from other States.
Apart from hotels in the East Fort and Overbridge localities, children are employed in confectionery and brick manufacturing units. Children below 14 years are also employed as domestic helps. The effort to regulate the working hours of child labourers and to educate them, was being resisted by the hotel owners, he charged.
Fr. Parakatt feels that NGO's working in the sector should be allowed to concentrate on a particular locality.
The infrastructure facilities available with the Government can be better used for providing night shelter for street children, for educating them and for recreational purposes, says the Don Bosco director.
``The vacant buildings owned by the Government might be converted into night shelters. If families are involved, collective rehabilitation should be thought of'', he says.
Fr. Parakatt, who has been closely working with street children for the last three years, says there are fewer street children here as Thiruvananthapuram is not an industrial city. A recent survey had revealed that there are only 300 children in the streets and this varies from season to season.
He feels a combination of legal action and rehabilitation can put an end to begging and the proliferation of street children. However, the provisions of the Beggary Prevention Act should be invoked in the State only after rehabilitation measures are worked out.
``Childline'', a 24-hour network project of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in partnership with NGO's, the State Government, Unicef and corporate and other individuals concerned was the latest Don Bosco project implemented in the city.
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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