India: From Train Tracks to Textbooks

India: From Train Tracks to Textbooks

Driven from their villages and homes by extreme poverty, parental abuse, or just the hope of a better life, the street children of New Delhi are refugees in an urban sprawl they do not comprehend. With a determined spirit, they survive from day to day, but not without unimaginable challenges.

Amit Gupta was eleven when he left his home. His parents were very poor, and he was nothing more than a burden to them. When he left home, he rode on a bus for eight hours and took the train headed to Delhi. With only enough money to survive for about three days, he lived at the railway station and soon lost what was left of his belongings. He found a job at a small textile shop, where he lived and slept for about a year. A staff member spotted him from the Salaam Balaak Trust, where he was given shelter, regular meals and was enrolled in a government school. One year later, after excelling at his studies, he was sent to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Mehta Vidyalaya School, a prestigious private secondary school in Delhi. Amit is now in his final year of Electrical Engineering, and is preparing for his exams to study his Masters abroad.

With an estimated 400,000 children living and working on the streets of Delhi, Planeterra’s New Delhi Streetkids Project supports over 4,000 children to help break the cycle of poverty.

This project gives these youth the opportunity to change their lives. With your help, we provide scholarships and vocational training – including training as tour guides for G Adventures' travellers. These boys now lead true insider tours through the enchanting city streets of Paharganj, a tourist hub in central Delhi. Our own G Adventures' staff, Steve Ladgrove shaved his own head to raise funds for this cause.

Thank you to all our generous travellers and donors who make this happen.

To continue to have long-term impact on all our projects in India, please consider investing in Planeterra today, and help create positive change in the places you love to visit.

~ The Planeterra Team