New Delhi: The Delhi government will set up a boarding school for homeless children, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced his budget speech.
An amount of Rs 10 crore has been allocated for the boarding school, which will cater to children from homeless families living on streets, footpaths, under flyovers, in open places of worship, pavilions and railway platforms, who are deprived of basic facilities like shelter, food and education.
“The government has taken several measures to provide basic education to these children. However, these measures have been only partially successful. Concerning the future of these underprivileged homeless children at an early age, the Delhi government has decided to set up a boarding school with modern facilities. These schools will also facilitate the children to live along with education and try to bring them into the mainstream of the society,” Sisodia said.
Modalities of the construction of boarding school will be worked out in close coordination among the Departments of Social Welfare, Women and Child Development (WCD), and Education.
There has been a significant increase in the number of homeless children in Delhi.
“When you stop at a traffic light, a small child knocks on your window and asks you for money or tries to sell you something, no one pays any attention to them. Why? Because they are not voters, they are not a vote bank. No government pays any attention to them. Today, we will make a Rs 10 crore residential state of the art facilities school for them,” said Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
Guidelines for identification of the children are being worked out. Various NGOs will also help in identifying such children.