17,914 kids on the streets, highest in Maharashtra: NCPCR tells SC
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) informed the Supreme Court that there are 17,914 street children, or “children in street situations’’ across the country. The Commission also said that Maharashtra has the highest number of children living on the streets.
According to the affidavit filed by the Commission on Monday in the SC, there are 17,914 living on the streets, out of which 9,530 children live on the streets with their families, 834 children live on the streets alone, and 7,550 children live on streets during the day but go back to families living in slums during the night. Amongst them, 10,359 children are boys and 7,554 are girls.
The NCPCR has filed its compliance affidavit in response to a SC order on January 17th in a suo moto writ petition on children living in street conditions.
This latest data compiled by states till February 15th and uploaded on “Bal Swaraj’’ – a portal created by the Commission, excludes the 2 lakh children that had been identified by Save the Children on behalf of NCPCR in an earlier exercise, it said.
The data reveals that Maharashtra has the largest number of street children at 4,952 followed by Gujarat (1,990), Tamil Nadu (1,703), Delhi (1,653) and Madhya Pradesh (1,492). But UP has the highest number of children living alone on the streets at 270.
