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Journalism of Courage
The siren of the 4 am train at Churchgate always wakes up a bunch of children living in two rooms under a bridge, the house closest to the railway station. “It is our alarm clock. The time to get ready for school,” says Rupesh (17), who lives at SPARC night shelter under a triangular hollow under a foot overbridge opposite the income-tax office leading to Wankhede Stadium.
It is only recently that the oddly-shaped structure has begun to resemble a shelter for boys under 18, after students from a local college gave it a colourful new coat of paint. The shelter, run by SPARC and assisted by the BMC, has housed children under the bridge since 1993. “Earlier, the space was empty and boys used to sleep here at night. We asked the BMC to allot us the space and turned it into a shelter for children under the age of 18,” said Gopal Sharma, who works in the day shift at the shelter.
Twenty-five children between 8 and 17 live on two levels at the shelter. The boys include orphans found on the streets by the NGO to boys abandoned by their parents or left at its doorstep.
Inside, the walls are painted a bright lime green and pasted with pictures of Jupiter and Saturn on which the younger boys have written poems. “Here the children have a place to play and sleep, have clothes, uniforms, books and oil. They enjoy staying with other children their age,” said Bhanumati Mishra, who looks after the children at night.
After dark, the open floor goes from a play area to a sleeping space as the boys spread out mats and blankets. Boys studying in Class IX and above sleep on the first floor. “We tried putting beds here but the children broke them all,” said Mishra.
Most boys have spent at least three years in the shelter. Eight-year-old Vinayak, the youngest of the lot, came to the shelter after his parents, who unload fish from trains at Churchgate, could no longer afford to care for him. “A lot of parents visit their children once every few months. Some never turn up,” said Mishra.
The case of brothers Ashok and Alok is similar. After their father passed away, their mother married another man, who declined to care for the boys. “Their mother sleeps outside the dargah in Marine Lines. She only visits them once a year on Raksha Bandhan,” added Mishra.
The primary schoolchildren attend the BMC school in Bora Bazaar. Alok, who wears an Atletico Madrid t-shirt, hopes to get picked for the school football team. “We go to Azad Maidan to play on Sundays. I practise hard,” he said. The boys’ lives are closely monitored in the home, with the iron gate shutting at 10.30 pm and requests from older children to be let out not entertained.
Cooks visit twice a day. “We have pasted a daily menu so that the children know what they are eating,” said Sharma. With temperatures dipping to record lows this month, the shelter provides much needed respite. “We feel cold when the breeze from the beach comes in,” said Rupesh.
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