Navjeevan Sanstha

Nav-Jeevan Sanstha is a non-profit organization established in 2003 for the care and education of street, slum and tribal children. We feel orphans a Read morere better off than this category of children because there are organizations which look after them. This is not true for street and slum children. Because they have parents Society feels no obligation to protect or provide for them. But this is a very vulnerable section of society. The parent or parents are out all days trying to eke out a living. The child is left to its own device in the shanty they call home or roaming the street. With no adult protection, the child is often a victim of abuse – both physically and sexually. On paper, the child’s name is entered into the Government schools’ rolls. Whenever there is an inspection in the school teachers come into the slums and drag these children into the classrooms but otherwise, no one is bothered. Very often the teachers themselves don’t bother to attend school, happy with the hefty paycheck that the Government gives them. Nav-Jeevan means New Life. This is exactly what Nav-Jeevan aims at: give the street kids in Nagpur shelter and help them build a new life. They are the children of rag pickers, beggars, brick-bearers and rickshaw drivers. Most of them live in one-parent families and have lost the other parent because of several reasons. They live in slums, left on their own during the long hours when their parent is working. Very often, they are abused by other grown-ups and are exposed to violence when the parent returns home intoxicated (alcohol and/or drugs).