18 kids found living on streets of Punjab without support: Minister

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Chandigarh, February 10

A total of 18 children have been found living on the streets without any parental or support of a guardian in Punjab said Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani in a reply to a question posed by MP Sunil Kumar Mondal in Lok Sabha.

Irani quoted figures from Bal Swaraj, a portal of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The data showed that Haryana has 23, Jammu & Kashmir one and Himachal Pradesh has zero children living on the streets without any support.

In March 2022, the ministry said children under all categories were produced before the Child Welfare Committees for identifying them as “children in need and are provided relief”.

In reply to a question as to whether the government was aware about the number of parentless children, wandering on the streets, figures for children living on the roads with their parents and those living on the streets during the day and back home in slums by the night were also shared.

Forty-one children have been found living on the streets with their parents in Punjab, 392 in Haryana, 15 in Himachal Pradesh and 33 in J&K. Punjab has 167 kids on the streets during the day, who go back to slums at night, while Haryana has 362. Himachal Pradesh has 93 children from the slums roaming on the streets during the day while J&K has 212 children in this category.

Reacting to the figures, Minister for Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities, Social Security, Women and Child Development Dr Baljit Kaur said, “These figures look very low and we will get the correct data. We have started a process to identify children on the streets.”

The national portal shows no entry for any child from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Manipur and Mizoram.