Another one fourth of these children are employed in the construction sector
Gaurav (13) is an unusually pensive teenager. He weighs every word before he speaks, almost fearful of reprisal. At his age, he knows how to cope with loss. His parents are dead. His younger brother Sumit and he were abandoned by his elder brother. But at his age, he also knows how to earn a living.
The two boys work in a local sweatshop in East Delhi's Harsh Vihar and earn Rs 1,000 per month. "We manage fine," said Gaurav when asked if he felt lonely. They live in a one-room brick house with no water or power supply.
A survey carried out by the Delhi government for identifying socially and financially vulnerable groups found there are over 5,400 such families headed by children in the city. These were just the results of the first phase of the survey. Many of these children are orphans, others were abandoned by their parents.
Usha (17) was sold by her parents to an old man. When she managed to escape and return to her home in Sunder Nagri, an unauthorised colony in east Delhi, her parents abandoned her and her five siblings and disappeared overnight. Usha and her siblings lived in the shack their parents owned for a while. While the other children were eventually taken in by their relatives, she was left behind. The teenager now works as a cook with St. Stephen's Hospital's Community Outreach Programme in Sunder Nagri.
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