India: Learn More About the Issues, Street Children and Orphans

India has the largest population of street children in the world. There are an estimated 18 million children that live and work in the streets of India’s urban centers.  Over 100,000 street children can be found in cities such as Mumbai, Calcutta, and Delhi.. The number of orphans with HIV/AIDS in India is larger than that of any other country in the world and is expected to double in the next five to seven years.

As an escape from extremely poverty and abuse, these orphans resort to living on the streets. They are often exposed to physical, mental and sexual exploitation as well as various diseases and malnutrition. Girls are especially vulnerable to abuse and trafficking. Forty-three percent of trafficked women in India are minors.

Anyone, who walks the streets of India’s cities, can witness the devastating problems of street children. Some children find work in labor shops, small hotels or car washes while others can be seen begging on the streets or trying to sell flowers and newspapers.  When attempts to make money on their own fail, sifting through garbage, stealing, drug trafficking and prostitution are not uncommon alternatives. Taking shelter in alleys, bus stops, railway stations, under bridges or in mosques, these children live under awful circumstances that are too often out of their control.

Gender Inequality

Women continue to face many forms of gender discrimination in the economic, political and social spheres of Indian society. In India alone, between 3 and 5 million female fetuses are aborted every year. Because of women’s secondary status, child malnutrition especially among girls is rampant.  India’s maternal mortality rate – 300 per 100,000 live births – is one of the highest in the world. Only 38% of women in this region have access to reliable healthcare. Furthermore, because boys are given priority for schooling, over half of the female population in India age 15 years and older cannot read or write.

Child marriage is also a problem. In 2006, the Indian Parliament passed the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, which bans the marriage of females under 18 and males under 21 years of age. But according to UNICEF, family, caste and community pressures for child marriage prove stronger than any legislation. Approximately 45% of children in India are married before the age of 18.

The prevalence of gender-based violence including domestic violence, dowry linked violence, violence against dalit women, and sexual assault pose a serious obstacle to the attainment of gender equality in India. Over 70% of women in India have experienced some form of physical, psychological, or sexual violence. Every hour, four women or girls in India enter prostitution, three of them against their will. In response to the rising cases of domestic violence, the government enacted a new law to protect women in 2006.

Women continue to be overburdened with work. In rural areas, women are primarily responsible for agricultural work in addition to household chores such as taking care of children and preparing meals. Over 87% of women working outside the home are employed in the agricultural or allied industrial sectors. Women’s contributions to family labor is grossly underestimated and unrecognized.

In the political domain, women continue to be under-represented. Currently, there are 50 women out of the 543 members of the lower house Parliament. After a sixteen-year hiatus, a bill that reserves one third of the parliament’s seats for women was introduced for the fourth time. Whether or not this bill will pass remains unclear.