3 Delhi govt depts to work closely to set up boarding school for homeless children
New Delhi Mar 27 PTI Three departments of the Delhi government will be working in close coordination to set up a boarding school for homeless children announced by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia during his budget speechThe AAP-led government has allocated Rs 10 crore for setting up such a school According to an official privy to the development the modalities of the same will be worked out in a couple of weeksThe modalities of the school will be worked out in close coordination with the Department of Social Welfare Department of Women and Child Development WCD and the Department of Education he told PTITalking about how the idea of the school originated the official said in the post-pandemic period there was a surge in the number of homeless children It was observed that the number of children seen near traffic signals had increased after the pandemic as opposed to the pre-pandemic time We did a pilot project in Malviya Nagar with the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights DCPCR and district authorities to see that if they are provided residential facilities how will they be benefitted We identified the children how they end up there and found that we may be able to prevent them from getting into begging by providing them residence he saidThe government will be coming up with a full-fledged schemeThe government has a commitment towards every child Our school model is very inclusive and if there is a segment that is not attending schoolwe will have to assess the reasons and work on them the official notedAnother official said the WCD has been working on the issue of street children and had even issued guidelines for their identification He said various NGOs and district authorities could also work on identifying such childrenThe data collected by district authorities of such children would come in handy for the education department he saidThe policy had said there is no legal definition of street children But Save the Children Organisation in its report Surviving The Street A Study of Street Children In Delhi had given the reference of UNICEF according to which three types of children belong to the category of street childrenThe three categories of street children are — those who run away from their families and live alone on the street second is street-working children who spend most of their time on the streets fending for themselves but return home on a regular basis while the last category is children from street families who live on the streets with their familiesSisodia had proposed Rs 10 crore for setting up the boarding school while noting that the government has taken several measures to provide basic education to the homeless children but the measures have only been partially successfulIt is not possible to get quality education unless basic facilities like food and shelter are in place The Delhi government has decided to set up a boarding school with modern facilities for these underprivileged homeless children These schools will try to bring them into the mainstream of society he had saidDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also spoke about the initiative during the post budget press conference and said steps taken in this direction in the past did not bear the desired results because they lacked human touchTalking about the initiative he said the children would be provided emotional and psychological support at the school that would have five-star facilitiesWhen you stop at a traffic light you do not pay heed to a child knocking at your window Till date no government has paid attention to the children standing at the traffic lights that is because they are not vote banksWe will take care of them Our government will build an excellent school for those children they will stay there and study there We will make them better citizens Kejriwal added PTI SLB SRY
New Delhi Mar 27 PTI Three departments of the Delhi government will be working in close coordination to set up a boarding school for homeless children announced by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia during his budget speechThe AAP-led government has allocated Rs 10 crore for setting up such a school According to an official privy to the development the modalities of the same will be worked out in a couple of weeksThe modalities of the school will be worked out in close coordination with the Department of Social Welfare Department of Women and Child Development WCD and the Department of Education he told PTITalking about how the idea of the school originated the official said in the post-pandemic period there was a surge in the number of homeless children It was observed that the number of children seen near traffic signals had increased after the pandemic as opposed to the pre-pandemic time We did a pilot project in Malviya Nagar with the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights DCPCR and district authorities to see that if they are provided residential facilities how will they be benefitted We identified the children how they end up there and found that we may be able to prevent them from getting into begging by providing them residence he saidThe government will be coming up with a full-fledged schemeThe government has a commitment towards every child Our school model is very inclusive and if there is a segment that is not attending schoolwe will have to assess the reasons and work on them the official notedAnother official said the WCD has been working on the issue of street children and had even issued guidelines for their identification He said various NGOs and district authorities could also work on identifying such childrenThe data collected by district authorities of such children would come in handy for the education department he saidThe policy had said there is no legal definition of street children But Save the Children Organisation in its report Surviving The Street A Study of Street Children In Delhi had given the reference of UNICEF according to which three types of children belong to the category of street childrenThe three categories of street children are — those who run away from their families and live alone on the street second is street-working children who spend most of their time on the streets fending for themselves but return home on a regular basis while the last category is children from street families who live on the streets with their familiesSisodia had proposed Rs 10 crore for setting up the boarding school while noting that the government has taken several measures to provide basic education to the homeless children but the measures have only been partially successfulIt is not possible to get quality education unless basic facilities like food and shelter are in place The Delhi government has decided to set up a boarding school with modern facilities for these underprivileged homeless children These schools will try to bring them into the mainstream of society he had saidDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also spoke about the initiative during the post budget press conference and said steps taken in this direction in the past did not bear the desired results because they lacked human touchTalking about the initiative he said the children would be provided emotional and psychological support at the school that would have five-star facilitiesWhen you stop at a traffic light you do not pay heed to a child knocking at your window Till date no government has paid attention to the children standing at the traffic lights that is because they are not vote banksWe will take care of them Our government will build an excellent school for those children they will stay there and study there We will make them better citizens Kejriwal added PTI SLB SRY
