Mr. Mohd. Rafiuddin - Director HCHW (Hyderabad Council of Human Welfare)

Your main focus is on education and rehabilitation of street children.
What are obstacles that you face to this end ?
I would put these obstacles under two headings.

The first set of obstacles that we face includes internal factors and the second set includes the external factors. Under internal factors, we encounter resistance from within the child. They enjoy the freedom on the streets and do not feel that they need help to live a better life. There ultimate aim is survival. External factors pertain to the external environment of the children. This includes the individuals and units with whom these children interact on the streets. All these people show that they are concerned for the child but they use these children for their own purposes. These people stand in our way to approaching the child. They can influence the children against us by promising them a better life on the streets which of course is untrue. This was however the initial reaction of such elements, way back in 1990. Now they know that we will be coming into their territory to take the children out of their hold. Up to 1996, we had a major problem with these antisocial elements. Most of these children are on the streets without any responsible adult care.

In Hyderabad, according to an estimate given by UNICEF way back in 1990s, there are 45000 street children who are homeless and have no families. Most of these children are pushed into rag picking by the older persons with whom they are living off the streets. There are also other segments on the streets who involve these children into illegal trades of arrack, drugs, petty thefts and commercial sex work. All these people don't want to let go of these children. Rivalries, groupism and difficulty in sustaining interest are other obstacles; moreover the children are exposed to so many tendencies and temptations. We have to keep all this in mind.

Our approach varies according to each level of our work. At the first level or what we call level one, we work with children directly on the street. The main aim is to develop a rapport and strike friendship with these children. We help them to understand what is right and what is wrong. We motivate them to do either one of the two things; either go back to their families on to join our level 2. At level two, we have Residential Rehabilitation facilities for the children, called child development centre (CDCs). We are running two, one in Hyderabad and the second in Secunderabad. Each CDC has a capacity of adjusting 50 children. Then we have an individualized program for every child. Based on the child's capacity and interest, we decide whether the child needs to be given formal education or vocational education. We have been successful in mainstreaming these children to the extent that they are going to formal schools and competing with regular students belonging to very good families. All these decisions are based on the information that is collected out of our interaction with the child. Every child needs a different approach.

Level 3 has those children who have agreed to join formal education. There is a full fledged residential home for these children. We call it a 'Second home'. It is something like giving them a second chance to live their childhood. Here the facilities provided are more but then the child has to adhere to rules of living in one's own home. The CDCs in contrast, are open homes. The child can come and go at any time and they still maintain contact with the street elements. But here they are completely cut off from any interaction with street life. At level three, we have 50 children. A major hurdle that we have faced is in the attitude of the community. People feel that these children have already left their homes to come and live on the streets, so they don't need homes.

The second big question is that of rehabilitation. Can these children be corrected, can they be changed? These children have the talent, potential and the grasping skills. These children are very fast. At such a young age of 6 or 8 years, being discontented with the situation in their families they decided to leave home. It's a very bold step and that says a lot for the spunk of these children. This energy needs to be channelized in a positive way. If not, it will spill into frustration and violence.

Have you encountered any difficulties in providing education to these children ?
When it comes to education, many of us think that it is impossible. Directing the street children towards education is what I would call our biggest achievement. We have made education our priority. Eight of our children who appeared for 10th standard and 7th standard exams have shown that all they require is opportunity and guidance. Out of these eight, six boys have passed in first class with distinction in the 10th class. We have similar results for 7th class. The oldest students from our organization are 19 and twenty year olds and are pursuing college education.

The resident social worker at the level 3 facility helps out these students with any questions on doubts regarding school work. Apart from that, we don't provide our kids with private tuitions for the school work. I would like to mention two case studies- first study is about a boy named Shabbir who was very good at academics. After surpassing our expectations in 7th standard, he wanted to sit for class 10th board exams as a private candidate. His school came back to us with the request of not letting him do that. They wanted him to appear as a school candidate while not jumping any classes. We could see that they did not want to lose a brilliant student. Eventually he managed to skip 9th class and topped 10th class in his school. The second matter of pride for us is that two of our boys have joined the same institute for social work, from which most of the founding members of HCHW have passed out. It was a moment of great pride when we spoke to the principal of this institute regarding the admission of our children.

You are sending your children to private schools or government Schools ?
We have students studying in both government and private schools. We have recently got the permission from the government to get our child admitted at any time of the year into the government or private schools. The reason for this is that sustaining a child's interest in school in absence of school activity is very tough. We need to introduce them to the right environment immediately.

Private schools have lowered the fees for us considering the cause that we are supporting. We make the decision regarding which school the child will go to based on factors like the background information on the child like whether he has had schooling, whether it is in telugu or english languages etc and finally his interests and capabilities that we weigh out of our interaction with the child. We have runaway children from other states as well. Majority are from Karnataka and Maharashtra, others from Madhya Pradesh, Calcutta etc.

Do you try to send these children back to their homes and families ?
This is a priority for us. We feel that nothing can substitute a family and the natural environment. Our institutions should be the last resort for the child. We have been quite successful in sending these children back to their families. We also do professional counseling for these children to ensure that the child does not come on to the streets again. We never send the child back alone. We try to find out the reasons why the child decided to leave and opted for living on the street. Our trained social worker accompanies the child to its family and discusses all the issues with the family. We discuss the particular reasons why the child left, very thoroughly with the whole family. We also describe to the parents, the pathetic lives that these children lead on the streets.

Parent's and family's reactions are varied. For a few, our social workers are like God. There are others who don't want the child back as they may be angry about something that the child has done. Children have gone back after 4 years or 8 years. Some children habitually run away from home again & again. The families stop bothering themselves at all. If there is too much hostility at home against the child, we get the child back but leave our numbers and address. Most of our children in the CDCs are these children whose families could not be traced or who were neglected by their families.

Do you network with other NGOs in these efforts ?
Do you get any help from the government administrative set up in your efforts in tracing the family of the child or in tackling the antisocial element on the streets ?
Yes we network with other NGOs in the state to try and trace the families of these children. We have our presence in other districts as well.

No, we usually don't take any help from the govt on these issues. But if there are some problems like the parents or the family refusing to take in the child, we involve the local police department sometimes because we need to put a note at the police station that such and such family is not taking back the child. In tacking the antisocial element on the streets that doesn't want to let the child get away, we opted not to take any help because we can't have the police with us all the time. The children get intimidated by the presence of police and the 'gunda' elements could take their wrath out on the children. Today or tomorrow we have to interact directly with them. Our aim is to influence them to change their attitude of their own will. We can't coerce them into it. It never works. So we openly discuss things with them we share with them photographs of our links with the higher authorities in the police. This is to get some authority behind our work. We tell them about the training program that we run for the police officials. This is to get across the message that a lack of co-operation could make us resort to other measures like police help but we never do. Today those people who initially created trouble are a great help to us in our work.

Do think that vocational training is important. How do you provide it ?
For older children with no background in formal education, we opt for vocational training. Most of them have been on the streets for a long time and would have already worked with a mechanic or in a restaurant etc.

So we look for the interest and introduce them to a course. We have facilities for screen printing, tailoring, carpentry, auto driving, car driving etc. On world computer literacy day, NIIT came forward with a package for the educated lot of our children who went through a crash course of 15 days.

When did HCHW begin work ?
What have been its major accomplishments ? Are you satisfied with the growth ?
HCHW came into being in 1990 and till 1993 our work was very informal and restricted to the streets. There were no shelters or homes. In 1993 we started our 1st CDC following the idea expressed by the children that they should have a home so as not to break the process of rehabilitation. We started initially with the help of the hotel Taj Banjara which came forward to donate lunch and dinner for these children from the food that is cooked for their staff. Another well wisher came forward with the rent for twelve months for the place that I rented for the children.

Thereafter we started dreaming of sending these children to school. To provide them with a nurturing environment that a school going child needs to compete with the other children at school, we came up with the idea of a level 3 residential place in 1996.From that time till today, around 2000 to 3000 children have been helped by HCHW if you look at education. We also run enrolment campaign in slums. If you include these numbers, the total beneficiaries would be more.

How do you raise funds for your organization ?
We began with no outside help. We have even contributed our personal earnings and savings. It was a struggle that would last from one day to another. Then later, we were helped by the local government. The commissioner for social welfare department extended a help of Rs.28,000 a year in 1994.

Then we came in touch with a Holland based donor organization called Novib. They listed out 3 strengths of HCHW-

• For three years we carried on our work without funds and based purely on local resource mobilization.
• It's a group of people who are qualified social workers.
• These kind of social activities are rare in Muslim communities.

They decided to donate Rs. 2 lacs a year with a firm commitment from us that we will not stop our efforts in local resource mobilization.

What are your views on NGO credibility and governance ?
Without credibility an NGO can't sustain for long. Credibility can be created only by accountability and transparency. Our income and expenditure, communicating our work and organization, how far we have been able to reach out to the people, all these factors will help increase credibility. We have a very functional board of twelve people who come from various professions. Every two years, we bring a change in the board. I think that a committed board can really help take forward the organization. In social sector, the results are not tangible. We are talking about lives. So in face of fewer successes than set backs, we have to keep our motivation levels high and keep going on.

Do you work with corporates ?
We have a lot of help from the corporates. The Taj hotel group has helped us right from the beginning. Other groups also come forward and offer help and sponsorships.

What are your expansion plans ?
We want to start a full fledged vocational training centre, latest by next year. We want to be able to offer many different options to the children and be able to help out at least 500 children in a year.

- Deepshikha Mehta
( Hyderabad)