As founder and CEO of Sustain Labs Paris, a sustainability incubator that transforms large organisations into social entrepreneurship entities, Dr Chatterji decided to match the owners of schools whom she knew with non-profits that worked with kids. “I would frequently fly down to Mumbai only to meet entrepreneurs who owned companies that ran schools. I found that while the owners of the private schools were altruistic and eager to accept children living on the streets in their schools, the implementation of orders by senior and middle management staff was erratic.” What was needed, she adds, was a country-wide systemic solution to make welfare and education accessible to all children. 

The workshops involved art and pictograms to understand subconscious indicators for experiences with violence and abuse

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With the help of the BMC, Dr Chatterji and her team of experts, including human rights specialist Janna Fuhrig and Joseph Rajni Asir, Sustain Labs’ creative director, are working at creating a boarding facility for street children in Mumbai. The Kamathipura Municipal School at 7th Lane has been chosen to kickstart the pilot project. The learnings from this will be used to scale up the idea to a national-level policy and replicate the model in other cities, depending on each state’s specific needs. 
Dr Chatterji says the municipal school in Kamathipura ticks all the boxes: it is semi-vacant, well-maintained, relatively new compared to other municipal properties and located in a quiet neighbourhood. “It is spacious and lit from multiple points, which is good for the mental health and overall wellbeing of the children. There was access to a designated play area and open spaces for children to use.”

Street children during a workshop conducted by Dr Miniya Chatterji and her team. In collaboration with NGOs Hamara Foundation and Pratham, they conducted the sessions with 40 kids to gauge the children's reaction to their solution

The team presented their solution to experts in the field of children’s rights, education, health for feedback. During this process, they built partnerships with professor Priya Rajagopalan of University of Pennsylvania, who came on board to lead the research on the health of street children. Alpa Krishnadas of UNICEF advised them on the legalities and MLA Amin Patel provided them with information specific to Mumbai, while offering them access to the municipal school. Finally, they asked the children themselves what they wanted. “In collaboration with NGOs Hamara Foundation and Pratham, we conducted workshops with street children in Mumbai to get their feedback on our solution,” says Asir. It involved a three-step process, starting with participatory mapping, where art and pictograms are used for dialogue with the participants, while also looking for subconscious indicators for experiences with violence and abuse; personal interviews to collect additional details on family background, history of abuse, perception towards the outer world, and lastly, focussed group discussions for slightly older children aged 12 to 17 years. “We found that the children viewed their future aspirations based on their current challenges. For instance, a child who has an abusive family member wants to become a police officer or army official. There’s also a strong desire to be integrated into a normal functioning society where they are rooted to one place. They had a deep bond with their peers, but there were also traces of  playful bullying among the children in both genders. They tend to look at outsiders who come to study them as saviours, who will help free them from the conditions they are in,” says Fuhrig. The reasons these children end up on the streets range from running away from home because of physical and psychological abuse, being born on the streets (the whole family lives on the street) and being held in exploitative 
structures, forced to beg and earn money.

Shahid Shaikh, a member from MLA Amin Patel's team, guides the mid-day photographer around the school. Patel helped Dr Chatterji identify and get access to sun-lit, airy, vacant BMC schools. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar

In India, street children, rag pickers, runaways and orphans committing petty crimes for subsistence or begging in the country, fall within the category of Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) and Children in Conflict with Law (CCL) as described in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Dr Chatterji says there are multiple legal provisions, which look promising on paper, but given the size of the country and the number of children on the streets, it is implementation that’s a challenge. The primary responsibility of the execution of the JJ Act, 2015 lies with the state governments and Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Dr Miniya Chatterji and Janna Fuhrig

The biggest challenge for the team is to attract the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government to implement the policy solution and implementation plan for affordable shelter and education. Dr Chatterji says, the children and most often their parents do not vote, and hence, they are off the map of democracy. “So, they are never the priority of the government. These children can tip India’s future either towards burning entrepreneurship and progress or increased crime. We do have a solidly vetted plan for a solution. Can the PM please hear us?”

How they plan to do it

Funds: A law that all education trusts in India, catering to various levels of education, earning above R5,00,00,000 in annual revenue for the three consecutive years, contribute 2 per cent of their revenue to any of the ‘children’s boarding’ built by the government. They could contribute towards the fees, living expenses, and infrastructure development.

Children’s boarding: Vacant government schools and buildings will be refurbished to cater as attractive ‘children’s boarding’ in Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata for temporary and long-term purposes and will be managed with the funds raised. 

Participating schools: Private schools and government schools that are located within a 20 km radius of the ‘children’s boarding’ will be identified to incentivise financially from the funds raised and non-materially to afternoon classes and train the children as per mandatory provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act and its 25 per cent reservation clause. A special emphasis will be on vocational skills. The government’s decision as to whether an identified school in the zone qualifies for the aforementioned programme will be facilitated by a study conducted by a team of experts. The results of this study will determine whether an identified school could potentially contribute to the programme.

Participating NGOs: To bring on board a selected list of NGOs specialising in working with children on the street, providing day and/or night shelter to at least 150 children at a time in the past five consecutive years,  and having an annual average child retention rate of no less than 95 per cent during that period. They will be responsible to reach out to homeless children and bring them to the children’s boarding, operate the facility and ensure they retain them therein.