From street child to software engineer

On Saturday, Sascha, Emily (fellow vols) and I went on a walking tour of Delhi, ran by the fantastic charity, the Salaam Baalak Trust (do check out their website!). They work to get children off the streets and help them to be children again, by giving them a home and getting them into school, so that in the future they can be successful adults.

The tour was led by a former street child called Iqbal and he told us about how children live on the streets in Delhi as he showed us around. It was so interesting to learn more about this side of Delhi, because you see so many children on the streets, so it was good to understand a bit better their situation. The reasons that children end up on the streets tend to be abuse at home, loving someone of the wrong caste or religion, or feeling like a burden to their family (many girls think this, as they know their parents will have to cough up an unaffordable dowry so that they can get married). A lot of them believe that if they go to the capital, they’ll get a job or even become a Bollywood star. The reality is they make money from collecting rubbish to sell on, or they shine shoes, or steal. They still have their fun – a lot of them spend their earnings on going to the cinema, but unfortunately many street children spend their money on drugs – a scarily high proportion of them are drug addicts.

Our final stop was one of the charity’s shelters for boys – we met about 50 boys. I have to say, I found this part a little odd, because we were with them for 15 minutes and all the tourists on the tour were taking loads of photos with them, which they’ll inevitably show to their friends and family. It was as if the boys were some kind of attraction for our amusement. However, the boys absolutely loved having their photos taken and they were so happy and excitable, because we’d come to see them, and I did end up being dragged into photos too.

Afterwards, we sat down in the office, and Iqbal told us about the success stories of the Salaam Baalak Trust – those children who had gone onto university or into secure jobs (their photos are up on the wall). Then he told us his own story, which I found very moving. Iqbal started living on the streets when he was 5. His father used to beat him, and when his parents split up, his sister went with his mother and he and his brother went with his father. After a few days, his father left them at the market, where they waited and waited, but he never came back. Soon, a couple who claimed to be their auntie and uncle took Iqbal and his brother away. They worked for them and they were paid, but the “auntie and uncle” put chilli in Iqbal’s eyes to punish him, so he ran away. He got on a train and ended up in Delhi. It was very hard and he struggled to find food and shelter, but he started collecting rubbish for a hundred rupees a day (that’s approximately a pound), until he joined a gang, who took 80% of his earnings in return for their protection. He said it was very hard to survive on such a little amount of money. He sometimes went on the train, but couldn’t afford the fare so he needed to avoid the ticket collector. One day he saw him coming and to escape, he jumped off the train. Iqbal was seriously injured and stayed in hospital for 6 months at only 6 years old. At the end of this time, a woman helped him and he started going to school, and some years later he found the support of the Salaam Balaak Trust. He doesn’t know where he comes from and for a long time, he thought that he was 3 years younger than he actually is, and his birthday has been made up (December because he has a cool temperament). Now he’s studying, and he wants to be a software engineer! He was a world away from this as child - it is so good to see that there is hope for these lost children. Iqbal is a lovely, interesting person, and we are keeping in touch. If you are reading Iqbal, please let me know of any incorrect information!