Sixteen-year-old Binod has been living on the streets for three years. Although he has parents at home, according to him, he does not like to live with them.
"My drunkard father used to beat up every one in the family, including me," said he. "I chose streets over my father's cruelty."Binod still misses his home. He said he reaches home whenever he wishes to see his mother and siblings, but only after making sure that his father is not around, he told Republica.
Once he had undergone a training on making incense sticks. At the end of the training the organization that provided it handed him over to his family. But he could not stay there for long because of his abusive father, Binod recalled.
The story of Mina, another street child, is similar. She recalls that her father left her at a place where she had to wash utensils and never came back.
"As I had to work a lot, I left the job and came to the streets," Mina said.
Binod and Mina represent a large number of children who have parents at home but are forced to live on the streets in the district. A study conducted by Diyalo Pariwar, a Non-Government Organization (NGO) based in Narayangadh shows that majority of street children belong to families that have parents and a home.
As per the study, even though 59 percent of the total street children have parents at their homes, they are living on the streets.
"The study showed that only 10 percent of the street children do not have parents," said Kedarnath Khanal, Executive Director of Diyalo Pariwar.
Thirty-one percent of street children in the district have either a father or a mother, he added.
The findings of the recent study on street children have changed the people's perspective and attitudes that children living on streets are not always orphans.
A street child, Bishal Lama, said that he never wanted to live on streets but it was his misfortune that the domestic violence in his family left him with no choice.
Thirty-seven percent of the street children said domestic violence and discrimination forced them to leave their home, while 26 percent attributed poverty and hunger as the main reason for abandoning their home.
Meanwhile, Executive Director Khanal stressed institutional rehabilitation for the street children who have parents and homes.
Of the total 150 street children in Chitwan district, 20 percent are girls, as per the latest study.
It is estimated that there are 5,000 street children across the country.
Livelihoods of 90 percent of street children depend on collection and sale of rags and discarded plastic bags. They earn on an average Rs 40 to Rs 500 per day. They share the income among their colleagues. Most of them consume tobacco and smoke.
According to Khanal, the study showed that social perspective has yet to change as the behavior of many parents caused their children to prefer the streets over home. Only after people changed their attitude toward street children, their rehabilitation can be sustainable. Child-friendly governance is a must though its implementation is full of challenges.
In the current fiscal year, District Development Committee (DDC), Chitwan has allocated a budget of over Rs 80 million for rehabilitation of street children, Local Development Officer Bharatmani Pandey informed.
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