India - home placement camps

These camps are usually held at a site far away from the railway platforms and are of one-month duration.

The children who have been on the platform for a longer duration i.e. more than 6 months are more difficult to reach and display greater problems such as substance addiction. The behavior of these children is more entrenched. They need more time for counseling towards home placement.

The objectives of such camps are to revive, in the children, an interest in their home life and reaffirm their faith in the family as a unit capable of taking care of their needs. The children are reminded of the love and affection they received from their families while living at home and these positive experiences are reinforced.

The mechanisms and techniques used are; group discussions, individual counseling, games within the groups. The various activities conducted in the camps are physical exercise (such as swimming and attractive cultural programs), meditation, non-formal education and narrating of moral stories.

Efforts are made to trace the addresses of the children and in the majority of cases, the parents are contacted, after which they are invited on the last day of the camp to meet and take their children back with them. It has been the experience of Aashray that about 75% of the children attending these camps experience a change in outlook and decide to return home or come out of Platform life.