{"id":182420,"date":"2017-08-16T15:09:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T09:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthkiawaaz.com\/2017\/08\/lost-of-identity-of-orphan-and-destitute-youth-in-india-2\/"},"modified":"2024-04-24T14:00:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T08:30:51","slug":"lost-of-identity-of-orphan-and-destitute-youth-in-india-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthkiawaaz.com\/2017\/08\/lost-of-identity-of-orphan-and-destitute-youth-in-india-2\/","title":{"rendered":"For Children Growing Up In Orphanages, Turning 18 Means Abandonment Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
I am Aditya Vasanti and I was brought up in SOS Children’s Village, Pune. I lost my parents at the age of four years – and I still don’t know who I am. Although I know that I am someone’s child, I still don’t have any identity.<\/p>
Luckily, I found the SOS Children’s Village to be a family where I could have protection and find a new identity to survive in the mainstream society. Through their care and support, I have built my personality and become a responsible citizen of this country.<\/p>
I have done my graduation and post-graduation in social work education. During this period, I travelled to many places and saw the situation of children in residential child-care set ups – especially in government-run children homes. It was really worse than what I had imagined. Children were put in these institutions as though they were in prison. Since childhood, they hadn’t been traced by\/told about their families – and suddenly, after they reached 18 years of age, they were forced to leave the facility.<\/p>
After coming out of the institution, there is no support system for these adolescents in the larger society. Most of them don’t even have a legal proof stating the community the person belongs to. And it is here that the problems start – with many youths getting trapped in social evils (like human trafficking, sex trade), crimes and addictions.<\/p>
Further, the system no longer supports them, now that they have crossed the age of 18 years. Neither does the government implement policies or programmes to protect these youths from malpractices, nor is the community or society ready to provide shelter, support and consider them as a fellow human being.<\/p>