A drop-in centre is teaching young people academic and life skills so they can better survive on the streets. Andrew Buncombe reports
Monday, 6 December 2010
SIMON DE TREY-WHITE
Street children taking part in the Butterflies scheme learn how to fill in ledgers in Old Delhi
When he picks up the battered cricket bat and noisily plays with his friends amid the green oasis of Delhi's Elephant Park, Ajit's smile is as fast and wide as that of any other child.
But get him alone and ask about his mother or father, or the whereabouts of other relatives, and the smile disappears. He quickly becomes still. He has no idea where his parents are, he says, and he fends for himself during the days and nights in this vast, overwhelming city. Ajit, 10, is utterly alone. "I came from Bihar. I came alone on the train," he says.
Where to begin imagining the world of dangers facing a 10-year-old living alone in Delhi, or in any of the thousands of cities around the globe where children make their home on the streets?
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