Twelve-year-old Rahul Ramu Pawar cannot remember his parents, or anything about his family. All he can tell you is that he was brought up by Ramu Pawar, who looked after him from the age of three. He even gave him his name and introduced him to selling toys on the streets and suburban trains.
That was till last July, when he was rescued from the street and given shelter at Snehasadan, a home for homeless children, in Andheri (East). Now, like the numerous other kids at the shelter, he too hopes to go to school.
"Abhi tak admission nahi mila hai. Padhai nahi kari na kabhi," (I haven't got admission as yet. So I could not study) says Rahul.
Rahul was spotted and picked up by Sanjeevani, a staff member of 'Project Talaash', an initiative of the Don Bosco Balprafulta Centre, which responds to the needs of street and slum children who have become victims of exploitation and abuse.
"Idhar achha lagta hai. Maine unnis-bees dost bhi bana liya hai," (I like it here. I have made 19-20 friends), says Rahul. He's excited about the change. In these few months at Snehasadan he has learned chess and plays the game well.
Rahul is one of hundreds of children who go missing in Mumbai and other cities every year. Many of them are said to be kidnapped from their neighbourhoods. There have been regular cases of infants disappearing from hospitals.
According to those working with these cases, most of the children are forced into begging, or into various forms of work, even into the sex trade. Such children constitute the most vulnerable section.
"Sometimes even parents force their kids into begging," says Firoze Patel, assistant commissioner of police, expressing concern at the rise in the incidence of such cases.
Mumbai has the second-most number of cases of missing children after Delhi. So, Don Bosco's set up the centre over a decade ago, with Fr Barnabe D'Souza as its head, to help rescue and rehabilitate these children.
"Many of these children are runaways or orphans. Our aim is to rescue and repatriate them," explains Sr Jacintha Pinto, executive director of the project. Some team members focus specially on railway stations, particularly Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, as they are very busy intercity spots.
ACP Patel pointed out that a majority of children forced into begging are picked up regularly from areas around Siddhivinayak Temple, Haji Ali dargah and Girgaum Chowpatty.
When a child is identified, the state's Child Welfare Committee gets involved to try and locate the family. If they are not able to reunite the child with its family, the committee will identify a shelter which will be entrusted with its rehabilitation.
"When we find these cases we refer them to the Child Welfare Committee within 24 hours," the police official says. "Every police station has an officer appointed to attend to grievances of women and children and it is from this network that we receive information about the cases."
The shelter homes, like Snehasadan, provide a favourable environment as well as educational and medical facilities, for children aged five to 18.
'Project Talaash' aims to sensitize the railway police, to help the cops develop a friendly attitude towards missing children, and raise the issue of protection for children.
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