Girls living on Mumbai’s streets raises trafficking

MUMBAI: Girls make up almost half the street children in Mumbai, a steep increase in recent years, according a local charity which says life on the streets puts girls at a greater risk of trafficking and sexual abuse.

Pratham, a Mumbai-based organisation focused on education, surveyed 651 children aged 18 and younger at traffic lights, railway stations and tourist spots and found that 47 percent were girls.

More than a third were under five, while about 60 percent were six to 14 years old, the survey found.

"We found almost equal numbers of girls and boys, which came as a big surprise," said Farida Lambay, director of the Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children.

"This raises concerns about their vulnerability, as girl children are exposed to risks like trafficking, abuse, early marriage," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In 2013, a study by charity ActionAid and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences found more than 37,000 street children in Mumbai, of whom 70 percent were boys.

Delhi was estimated to have about 51,000 street children, about a fifth of them girls, according to a 2011 survey by Save the Children. Worldwide, the number of street children is believed to be in the tens of millions, with some estimates as high as 100 million.

Mumbai, India’s financial hub, is a magnet for migrants seeking better economic opportunities from across the country, as well as from neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh.

Most of the children surveyed by Pratham said they lived with their parents, while about 10 percent lived alone. More than half were out of school.