Life in Transit: The Railway Kids of India

by Zoe Noakes 2-6-2010

“Why are these children here at this time of night – why aren’t they sleeping safely in homes of love like my grandchildren?”

This was the question Bev Spence asked herself when she first met the young residents of the Agra Cannt Railway Station in India late last year.

It was 10pm and their train was running late. Bev and her husband Stephen had settled themselves against the grimy wall of the station to wait it out when a group of seven children joined them. Two babies were perched on the bony hips of the five and six-year-old, while a teenage boy used his arms to scoot towards them on his bottom. His legs were crippled; twisted and wasted beneath him.

The Coffs Harbour couple offered the children some snacks and Bev cuddled the babies. “Finally the train came and it was time to part, which the children did as easily as stray dogs who watch a new friend leave, only to trot off to find someone else who might give them a scrap,” Bev recalls.

“As I held the babies and enjoyed my time with them all I could think was ‘why are these children here at this time of night?’”

Agra, a small city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India’s north, is the home of the Taj Mahal. Thousands of people pass through the station on their way to see the mausoleum, but 60 children remain behind. Ranging in age from toddling babies of two, to seventeen-year-olds, they are the station’s permanent residents.

With the second largest rail network in the world, 18 million passengers travel across India each day, stopping at countless stations. For thousands of children, the railway stations are more than a transit point: they are bustling communities and a source of income.

Many children flee to the stations to escape the brutality of an abusive home; others simply have nowhere else to go, orphaned or abandoned by poverty-stricken parents.

At the stations, the railway kids’ daily lives revolve around the train timetable. Each influx of passengers brings the chance to perform menial tasks for money: filling water bottles for resale; shining shoes; begging; carrying luggage; selling ‘gudkas’ – tobacco mixed with betel leaf.

The majority of these children are boys, who are more likely to run away from home than girls. When girls do arrive at the station, they are the first to disappear. Predators immediately traffic the girls into prostitution and sex slavery.

Though the station provides them with a meagre source of income, theirs is an existence fraught with danger. With no supervision of any kind, and largely unprotected by adults, the children are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and violence. Sexual abuse by the stallholders, older boys, and even the police, is rife.

The trains also claim numerous lives, as children are pushed or fall onto the tracks. Malnutrition and frequent illness are facts of life.

To escape from the harshness of reality and pass the time between trains, many become drug addicted, inhaling ink thinners, the cheapest high available. At night the children curl up on sheets of cardboard laid out on the platforms, or on the concrete floor.

In a country with the world’s highest number of child runaways – 18 million according to the last census conducted by UNICEF – it is all too easy for kids like these to go unnoticed and ignored.

But Bev knew she had to do something. “My heart felt like it was breaking as I looked down on them and prayed with an ache inside, a yearning for them to know a kinder and better life”, she says.

Bev established a tax-deductible charity known as ‘Railway Kids’ in Australia, and ‘LifeHouse Kids’ in India (Indian Railways have the sole right to use the word ‘railway’). After months of hard work, her dream of providing a better future for the kids became reality. Three months ago the first LifeHouse Kids centre opened in Agra. Already 14 children regularly attend, believing for a better life.

These kids have lost their right to a childhood and an education, but the Lifehouse Kids centre is helping them to hope and dream again.

“We are reaching out to kids just as they are, meeting them where they’re at and connecting with them”, says Bev.

The daily program provides meals, bathroom and shower facilities, games, and basic education, with the focus on practical life skills like the importance of hygiene.

The centre, a two-bedroom house, is located about 8 kilometres from the station, which Bev says was a conscious decision. The children are picked up from the station by auto-rickshaw each morning and dropped off in the evening.

“It gives the kids a break from having access to drugs and gambling [which is prevalent at the station]. Coming to the centre requires a conscious decision and commitment to the whole day’s program,” Bev explains.

“The kids need to believe a different life is possible.”

Stage 2 of the project, establishing a permanent home for the children, has just opened this week. Four children, who would otherwise be sleeping at the station or on the street, now have a place of security and love to call home.

The ‘Railway Kids’ charity is currently looking for supporters, particularly in the business sector, to see its vision fulfilled and more lives changed.

“There is so much need in the world, so many kids living in poverty,” says Bev.

“This centre in Agra is just the beginning, but it has the potential to become massive. Our vision is to see child rescue centres like this all over India. The project doesn’t just help the kids; it will impact the parents, the relatives, and the community.”

“It’s an opportunity to be a part of something wonderful.”