In this twenty-fourth archive story by Kristian Bertel, we meet a street child in the traffic-rushed streets of Delhi, walking from car to car selling things in an effort to get to his daily needs. Read the background story of this archive photo by the photographer.
Street children in India are mostly concentrated in the streets with traffic and even before the traffic lights and the dimming, with their things they want to sell. It is the fervent hope of the street children that people will buy what they have to sell. In Delhi the photographer portrayed an Indian street child a photo that in many ways portray an important cultural topic in India.
As a photographer and traveler in India it is hard to ignore the street children in the Delhi streets, when driving from one destination in India to another in a comfortable car seat. Heart-wrenching sceneries just outside the car made the photographer interested in telling the stories of the life conditions of the street children he encountered on his journey to Delhi, India.
Street children are minors who live and survive on the streets. They often grow up in public landfills, train stations, our under the bridges of the world's major cities. Because of conflicts with their family, these children do not want to or cannot return home. So why does a child live on the streets? The phenomenon of street children is actually multifaceted. The combination of familial, economic, social and political factors play an important role in their situation. It is therefore very difficult to single out one or more causes. However, children who have been questioned say that family, poverty, abuse, war and so on. are often why they left for the streets. As a traveler and a photographer he asked himself what are the problems encountered by street children in India and street children are confronted by a large number of problems. In fact, growing up in an environment generally regarded as dangerous, they incur considerable risks. As a consequence, some of their rights are very often compromised.
Street children often do not have access to a healthy and sufficient diet and they should have rights to food. Sometimes they do not even have food, because living on the streets, they do not produce any and do not have money to buy. Also, these children do not benefit from a balanced diet, where they eat what they can find. Sometimes, when they have the choice, they even favour unhealthy foods such as ice cream, cakes and so on and so run the risk of malnutrition. Growth problems are also common with these children. The health of children growing up on the streets is strongly compromised and they should also have rights to health. In fact, they do not have access to sanitary facilities, where they are often dirty and infested with fleas. Also, because of their lack of hygiene, street children are exposed to different diseases. Their health is often troubling. Without a family to take care of them, these youth must take care of themselves.
Additionally, street children, to escape their reality, often use cannabis, alcohol or inhale natural gas. Unfortunately, these very hard living conditions, have a negative impact not only on their physical and psychosocial development, but also on their cultural and economic development. Street children are obviously not educated and should also have the right for education. Because of this, they do not have the same opportunities as other children. In fact, because they do not see a future for themselves, and because they have no professional training, they are hindered from finding a job and from finally leaving the streets. Seen as marginals, street youth are often victims of discrimination. Generally, adults have prejudices that stigmatise them as street children. Consequently, they are often associated with the dangers of the streets. It is often difficult for these children to reintegrate into society. What can be done to help street children? The problem of street children is dependant on their situation and not on their status. In fact, each child has a personal history with the street that cannot be generalised. Because of this, the care of street children must, to be effective, hinge on the different situations on the streets, in other words, on the many child profiles. It is important to analyse the relationship a child has with the street. In order to better understand children living and growing up on the streets, it is essential both to make them participate, and to put them in contact with key institutions or individuals looking to understand the structural causes of their situation.
Delhi is the most polluted city in the world and according to one estimate, air pollution causes the death of about 10,500 people in Delhi every year. "- Given the road conditions in India, this is not a country for novice drivers and also as a photographer photographing street children in heavy traffic can be difficult. Cows and people can be crossing the carriageway to broken-down trucks, pedestrians on the road and perpetual pothholes and unmarked speed humps can also be seen. My pictures in general have a profound focus on the imaginative in my photographic work on the relationship between human nature and culture. A focus that creates a reflection on the traditional order of observing", the photographer says. It is not only street children alone that India deals with. Despite national legislation prohibiting child labour, human-rights groups believe India has an estimated 60 million child labourers, which is the highest rate in the world. Poorly enforced laws, child poverty and lack of a social-security system are cited as a major causes of the problem. The harsh reality for many low-income families is that they simply cannot afford to support their children, so they send them out to work in order to survive. The majority of India's child labourers work in the agricultural industry, while others work on construction sites or as rag pickers, carpet weavers or brick makers.
India is a land full of stories. On every street, on every corner and in the many places in India, life is rushing by you as a photographer with millions of stories to be told. In the archive story above, you hopefully had a readable insight in the story that was behind the photo of a street child in Delhi. On this website of Kristian Bertel | Photography you can find numerous travel pictures from the photographer. Stories and moments that tell the travel stories of how the photographer captured the specific scene that you see in the picture. The photographer's images have a story behind them, images that all are taken from around India throughout his photo journeys. The archive stories delve into Kristian's personal archive to reveal never-before-seen, including portraits and landscapes beautifully produced snapshots from various travel assignments. The archive is so-far organized into photo stories, this one included, each brought to life by narrative text and full-color photos. Together, these fascinating stories tell a story about the life in India. India, the motherland to many people around the world, a land of unforgetable travel moments. The archive takes viewers on a spectacular visual journey through some of the most stunning photographs to be found in the photographer's archive collection. The photographer culled the images to reflect the many variations on the universal theme of beauty and everyday life in India. By adding these back stories the photographer's work might immensely enhanced the understanding of the photographs. See also the Spotlight blog posts about Street Children in India and Indian Street Youth.