Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=new+delhi">New Delhi</a>, the capital of India boasts of a vast slum population also regarded as one of the most neglected sections of the society. 
 
The children however are the worst victims of the prevalent rampant ills, such as child-marriage, abuse and police brutality. 
 
But despite these tough conditions and poverty, there are an ample number of children who want their life to be more than just this- they want it to have a purpose. They want the world to hear their voice. 
 
And, in 2003 the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ngo">NGO</a> Chetna brought these children together and launched <keyword id="1663733" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Balaknama">Balaknama</keyword> (voice of children), a quarterly <keyword id="6393964" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="newspaper">newspaper</keyword> that talks about the issues faced by children who earn money begging, doing menial jobs and rag picking with 35 reporters in New Delhi in 2003. 
 
Now, it has spread to seven cities, with almost 10,000 children working as journalists and writers for the publication. Tens of thousands make up the readership for Balaknama. 
 Eighteen-year-old Chandni is the editor of the newspaper and she holds editorial meetings twice every month. In total, there are 14 reporters, all of whom are either <keyword id="6406617" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Street-children">street children</keyword> or have worked as child labourers in Delhi and neighbouring states. They track Delhi and neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. 
 
Thanks to the NGO, Chandni was able to join a school and did not have to go back to her previous life of street-performing and rag-picking. Chetna's outreach program also gave her a stipend to and trained her in reporting. 
 
 
 
"I am very proud of editing this paper because it's one of its kind in India. Children whose childhood have been robbed, have gone hungry, begged, been abused and forced to work, write about other children who are going through similar tribulations," Chadni adds. 
 
Most of Balaknama's stories deal with the lives of street children - of employers mistreating their maids, police harrasing children at railway stations - interspersed with stories of hope. 
 
Like 17-year-old Vikas Kumar put it- the idea is to get everyone to treat street kids as equal citizens and get their voice heard. 
 
"If a Bollywood actor's dog gets hurt, it will be breaking news and will be covered by all newspapers and channels in India. But when a street kid dies on a railway platform or in an accident, no one seems to care,” he said to Al Jazeera. 
 
Vikas ran away from his home at nine when he couldn’t take the wrath of his abusive parents any longer. For the next few years, he worked as a rag-picker at a train station and also fought drug addiction, coming out clean and ending up as a reporter for Balaknama. 
 
Lucky for them, the circulation of the newspaper has gone up from 4,000 to 5,500 copies in the past one year. We hope that these kinds continue to make a difference and create awareness 
 
The newspaper is financed and published by the NGO and has been priced at two rupees. 
 
 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

Meet the children from Delhi who run India’s only
newspaper published by street kids

By Uzmi Athar New Delhi, Apr 15 () With folded hands, 11-year-old Raman (name changed) said he had not eaten for three days and appealed to authorities to provide at least drinking water, if not food, to him and his three younger siblings, who have not had a proper meal since the nationwide lockdown was enforced on March 24 in view of the coronavirus outbreak.Raman sent the message in a video clip to CHETNA (Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action), an NGO working for street children. According to its director Sanjay Gupta, they have received many such videos since the lockdown was enforced.India is currently under the biggest lockdown in its history with around 130 crore people asked to stay indoors in view of the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed 377 lives and infected more than 11,000 people in the country so far.The government has issued strict directions, restricting the movement of people and ensuring that they maintain social distancing. All non-essential movements have been curbed and people asked to self-quarantine themselves.But self-quarantining is a luxury not everyone can afford, especially the street children, who make their living by selling balloons, pens etc. at the traffic signals."The street children are the most vulnerable population who do not have savings to last them even for a day and are completely dependent upon external help. They are invisible children, who live in areas that are not easily accessible," Gupta said.Recalling his experiences during the first three days of the lockdown, he said that was the "worst" phase when they received messages from these children crying of hunger."The children contacted us crying and saying help us, we have not eaten anything. The government sprung into action and started giving helpline numbers and we started passing the numbers to them because we do not have (curfew) passes as we do not come under essential services. That system started working and food reached them, but not in enough quantity," Gupta said.He added that most of these videos came from Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Delhi, where the NGO's network is active."We made small groups of these street children earlier and have their mobile numbers with us. Do not think that they are street children so they do not have mobile phones. In a group of 12-15 children, one of them will have a mobile phone, so we have established this connection and managed to reach out to 600-800 children in Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Delhi till now. These are the children who informed us of their plight," Gupta said.He said these children prefer to share videos as they feel that they can express themselves better this way and also show their living condition.In another video, Binny, 12, (name changed) says she has seen a lot in her life, right from an abusive father to abject poverty, but this lockdown has shaken her and appealed to authorities that regular meals be given to her, especially at a time when she is not able to provide for her family.In many such video clips received by CHETNA, children are seen appealing for food and other essentials, which they say are not reaching them in sufficient quantity.The government has provided ration and cooked food facilities in many areas, but Gupta says these children need to be fed thrice a day."One of the biggest issues we are facing is that the volunteers and common people who are distributing food think that supplying it to the children once a day is enough, but they need to be fed thrice a day," he said.According to Gupta, another major cause of concern is regarding the mental health of these children as they are locked in a small room the whole day with several other family members, who are mostly bickering and abusing each other.To ensure the mental well-being of these children, they are using innovative ways to keep in touch with them, he said."We send them messages and TikTok videos about how to keep safe and what precautions they must take," Gupta added.According to some NGOs, the number of children on the streets of India can be as high as 20 lakh and around two lakh of them live in the national capital.Gupta urged the state governments to form small groups to look into the needs of street children during the lockdown. UZM RC

Street children send video messages calling for help during lockdown

Have you ever played Santa to an underprivileged kid not for charity, but to see the smile hidden behind the shabby face? Imagine the world doing it at a greater length. This Christmas, start-ups went beyond promoting their business products to playing Santa to hundreds of children, just to see that sparkling smile.
 

	This trend came to the forefront when the country was struck by one of its most devastating disaster, the Chennai floods. From IT companies to telecon to start-ups, everybody came to the rescue of the victims. Startups are increasingly partnering with non-governmental organisations to bridge the gap between non-profit and for-profit enterprises.
 “We do a lot for the corporate. Why not extend the services to the development of those who are neglected and deprived of opportunities?” said Siddharth Gupta, cofounder of <keyword id="2913717" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Treebo">Treebo</keyword> Hotels. 

	Here’s a list for the government and corporate to look up to as an example of how to serve a nation and make it a developed country, in true sense.
 

	Tech-enabled budget hotel start-up, Treebo partnered with a host of NGOs and organised an educational tour for 33 underprivileged children in Bangalore. Their two day stay at a hotel which was accompanied by tours around the city museums and monuments is a one of its kind initiative, named ‘Junior checks-in’.
 

	“We tied up with NGOs because we genuinely feel that travel can contribute to the growth and learning of any individual, particularly kids. We felt that these kids who don’t have all the privileges never get the opportunity to travel and use travel to expand their learning horizon,” said Gupta, adding that they plan to conduct such tours once every quarter.
 Treebo partnered with several NGOs engaged in welfare of underprivileged kids across the country, including <keyword id="828816" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Salaam">Salaam</keyword> Baalak Trust, Divya Deepa Charitable Trust, IDEA Foundation, and CHETNA. <keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ZoomCar">Zoomcar</keyword>, a self drive car rental company, partnered with Infant Jesus Charity Home, a voluntary, non- government and non- profit organization dedicated to give love and understanding to orphaned and underprivileged children. They took the children for a joy ride on the occasion of Diwali this year, 2015. Zoomcar also partnered with Janagraha and launched #mycleanbangalore encouraging its customers to take a resolution to keep the city clean and green. 

	There are also start-ups which does the work of an NGO by being a for-profit enterprise. Shop For a Cause, online shopping portal tied up with NGOs that promote handicrafts made by tribal women and are promoting them in their online shopping site.
 Talking about Chennai floods, the contribution of the start-ups cannot be mentioned enough. Apart from food delivery and mobile payment start-ups, technology start-ups too came forward to enable technology based relief operations which turned out to create a huge difference. One such Delhi-based data startup <keyword id="2591749" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SocialCops">Socialcops</keyword> is working with NGO Bhumi with relief operations by providing better data, technology and efficiency in identifying the worst hit areas. There are also start-ups that work closely with slums. Through a tie-up with NGO Diwya, which works with kids in Dharavi, Mumbai's biggest slum, <keyword id="2556777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Timesaverz">Timesaverz</keyword>, on demand home services marketplace, is distributing anything its customers want to give away to these needy children. 

	These start-ups have started a trend which is afst catching up in the startup boom in India. Hope this catches up with every corporates and government of the country too.

	 
	 
	(Image credits: flickr/Damon Lynch)

You Searched For "NGO Chetna" and got 3 results

Meet the children from Delhi who run India’s only newspaper published by street kids

Poulomi Das

Street children send video messages calling for help during lockdown

PTI

Startups playing Santa: Lessons to be learned by all!

Usha Rani Das

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides