Shubham

Prayas brought us visit their Railway Project at the beginning of our placement. They a booth in the station for railway children. It works to provide shelter and support to run-away and street children who live in the station. There is also a drop-in shelter run by Prayas which provides a short-term home for the railway children.

We were taken to see this shelter too. It's in Old Delhi, which is not too far from New Delhi Railway Station. It is walkable, but most of us scrambled into the Prayas Railway Project mini-van. The building is very small. The front door opens directly onto the boys' bedroom. As far as I can remember, about eight or ten-beds form two lines in the room. There's a small corridor between the beds with a mat for the boys to sit on and a blackboard at the front of the room for some schooling. When we arrived the boys were neatly seated in two lines on the mat and a young Indian man seemed to be teaching them. I'd say there were 15 or so boys there and I'd say they were aged 12ish, but some seemed younger again. One boy was deaf and dumb but with the biggest smile I've ever seen. Despite his smile, it was a very sad place. The boys sat staring up at us and it felt like all they needed was to be loved. Their situations were desperate.

There was a door at the other end of this room which led directly into the office. We were brought in here and told about the project. Unfortunately half of our group of volunteers had walked from the station. It was one of the hottest days in Delhi so far at 47 degrees, so none of them were holding up very well. Poor Daragh felt sick and had to go home. Although it was good see Prayas' other work, we were all feeling very tired and it was with some effort that we listened to the manager of the project explain how she ran the home.

She explained that many of the boys had run away from home and made their money selling or stealing in the railway station. The home provides only basic accomodation and some education, but aims to reunite the children with their parents or failing that, relocate them to a longer term shelter home like Jahangipuri (where the other Delhi Suas team works).

She also explained that many of the children are addicted to substances, glue, tippex and so on. This is one of their main problems. Prayas organise a kind of rehab for these children and their families (if they find them) a few times a year. We were given a photo album of a ceremony of successful completion.

When I took a look at the album, within the first few pages, I saw Shubham; a little boy in my class. On our first day at school, Shubham strolled into class late and Monu introduced him to Daragh and me, saying, "This boy is mentally disturbed." He's a really good boy. He doesn't participate in class really, and has only really learnt one piece of English since we arrived and that is to say "Happy" and put a big smile on his face. He tends to wander around the school quietly and do his own thing mostly.

One thing he loves is to play "A Sailor went to Sea Sea Sea" at lunch time everyday.