The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| For India’s railway children, a dangerous life by the tracks Posted: 17 Feb 2014 08:27 PM PST The young boys huddled over a fire between two tracks just beyond the platforms of New Delhi railway station, oblivious to the trains rolling past. They were trying to boil some water to make tea. One, a grime-encrusted urchin wearing a filthy baseball cap at a jaunty angle, said this was their home. He had run away after his mother died and he could take no more beatings from his alcoholic father. The nine-year-old from the northern state of Haryana said he slept on the platform or in a waiting room, scrounged for food and earned some money scavenging plastic bottles for reselling. "I used to go to school but when my mother died everything was shattered," he said. These were just a few of India's "railway children" - whose ranks are swelled by an estimated 120,000 runaways arriving each year at the stations of the world's fourth-largest railway network to make their homes there. They have fled poverty, violence and abuse or are simply seeking adventure, attracted by the bright lights of the big cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The children are a reminder that despite newfound wealth, ranks of billionaires and a growing middle-class, there is no magic wand to solve the problems of the old India. Even though growth has slowed in the last few years, the chance to make money still attracts the railway children to the big cities. With India on course to have the world's youngest population by 2020, their plight is a signal the country could fail to exploit this economic advantage. The last survey of New Delhi station in 2007 by charity groups estimated 35 to 40 children were arriving each day. "Now it is increasing," said Pramod Singh from the Salaam Baalak Trust, who combs the platforms each morning for new arrivals and tries to bring them into his group's safety net. Navin Sellaraju, country director of the Railway Children India, a branch of the UK-based organisation, said it is a huge issue in a country that has a fifth of the world's children. "A good number of them have run away from poverty in rural areas of the most backward states. In Delhi and Mumbai, you have many from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal," he said, referring to large northern and eastern states whose combined populations exceed those of Brazil and Russia together. "A lot of remote areas are connected by rail but not by road. A child can get on a train and travel without a ticket." Despite the shelter of the stations, danger is everywhere. The minute the children arrive, they are exposed to the risk of physical abuse by older boys, sexual abuse by adults and gang rivalry. Girls are particularly vulnerable and are often taken off by traffickers with hours of landing. Social workers try to get to them first. "It is important to get to them within a day or so of arrival, otherwise it becomes difficult," Singh said. "They pick up survival skills. They are easily trapped." Reluctant returnees A number of boys were being cared for by Salaam Baalak and Railway Children in a shabby building in the station compound. Nine lads, all barefoot, sat on a rug, playing checkers. A few had arrived that morning. The oldest was thought to be 14. One said he came from Kishanganj in Bihar state - a journey of nearly 1,000 km. He arrived in Delhi three years ago but met social workers only in the past few months. "I don't want to go home. Now I'm attached to this place," he said. Railway Children's Kiran Jyoti said it was often hard to get the children to return to their families. "Newcomers are reluctant to talk. They can take months to disclose where they are from," she said. "If they can't be restored to the family, they eventually have to go into long-term care." Some do not want to return to abusive homes. Others simply like the freedom and the fact they can earn money - 250 rupees (RM13) on a good day. On the downside, some take to sniffing substances and turn to pick-pocketing and petty crime. Indian law provides a framework to tackle the problem with child protection and anti-trafficking laws, but enforcing and funding those measures prove difficult, Sellaraju said. The children have also suffered threats and violence from the police and railway officials but that is now changing. "It used to be cruelty. Now no shouting, no handcuffs. We want child-friendly police stations. Protecting children is also a policeman's duty," said Thaneshwar Adiguar of the Special Juvenile Police Unit. Railway companies are involved in the effort, setting up posts and spreading awareness through staff, vendors, porters and passengers with announcements and leaflets. "There is a positive intent on the part of the government and railways but there are many challenges," Sellaraju said. "India is at a crossroads. There are two extremes which exist now." – Reuters, February 18, 2014. |
| First biomarker could help boys at risk of major depression Posted: 17 Feb 2014 07:22 PM PST In a study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS) journal, the team found that teenage boys who have a combination of depressive symptoms and raised levels of the stress hormone cortisol are up to 14 times more likely to develop major depression than those who show neither trait. The findings suggest teenagers could in future be screened for such signals, and those at highest risk could be helped to develop the kind of coping strategies and "brain fitness" to help them avoid becoming depressive. "We're very bad about looking after our mental health, and yet the problems of mental health are extremely common," said Barbara Sahakian, a Cambridge University professor of Clinical neuropsychology who worked on the study. "Depression is one of the greatest global burdens of disease - it's a much bigger problem than heart disease or cancer and it's much more expensive." Depression affects around 350 million people worldwide and at its worst can blight patients' lives for decades, affecting their relationships, work and ability to function. It can also lead to suicide, which alone leads to a million deaths a year. "Depression is a terrible illness," said Ian Goodyer, a child and adolescent psychiatrist who led the research team. "We now have a very real way of identifying those teenage boys most likely to develop clinical depression." He said armed with such knowledge, doctors and other carers could target prevention strategies at depression-vulnerable boys and "hopefully help reduce their risk of serious episodes of depression and their consequences in adult life". According to the World Health Organisation, prevention programmes - including boosting cognitive, problem-solving and social skills in children - have been shown to reduce depression, and earlier intervention is more effective. Depression triggers Different factors are thought to influence the development of depression, including genetics, brain chemistry, lifestyle and upbringing. Key triggers for the condition can include stressful life events, medical illness and alcohol abuse. For their study, Goodyear's team measured levels of cortisol in saliva from two large separate groups of teenagers. The first group of 660 provided samples on four school mornings within a week and then again 12 months later. A second group of 1,198 teenagers gave samples over three school mornings. Using self-reports, collected over 12 months, of any symptoms of depression - such as feeling sad or anxious - and combining them with the cortisol results, the researchers then divided the teenagers into four sub-groups ranging from those with normal levels of cortisol and low symptoms of depression in Group 1 through to those teenagers with more cortisol and high symptoms of depression in Group 4. Tracking the teenagers for three years, the team found that those in Group 4 were on average seven times more likely than those in Group 1, and two to three times more likely than in the other two groups, to develop clinical depression. Further analysis showed that boys in Group 4 were 14 times more likely to develop clinical depression than those in Group 1, and two to four times more likely to develop it than either of the other two groups. Commenting on the findings, John Williams, head of neuroscience and mental at the Wellcome Trust charity which helped fund the study, noted that depression is "incredibly costly to society" and cited a 2011 European College of Neuropsychopharmacology report that said mood disorders cost Europe alone more than 110 billion euros (RM496.7 billion) a year. "We desperately need ways to identify people at high risk of depression early so we can potentially prevent its onset and treat it early to reduce its burden. In this context, (this) study... is a landmark in the field," he said. – AFP, February 18, 2014. |
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