A survey by the NGO Save the Children says there are 50,923 street children in Delhi one-fifth of them being girls. These children constitute 0.4 percent of city's total population.

According to the study, which is the first of it's kind, “One out of every five (20.3 per cent) of the street children are involved in rag picking. This is followed by street vending (15.18 per cent), begging (15 per cent), working on the road side and repair shops (12.19 per cent), dhabhas/hotels (6.24 per cent) and manufacturing units (1.22 per cent).”

The survey report underlines that working street children are most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. “Employers force these children to work for long hours without providing them food and any safety equipment, and for abysmally low wages as the children are not aware of their rights. They are subjected to sexual abuse by strangers, adult street dwellers, and at times by the police,” it says.

The survey which covered all the nine districts of Delhi points that the highest concentration of street children is in north India. The report found that majority of these children were from Bihar (21.2 percent), followed by Uttar Pradesh (15.3 percent), Rajasthan (6.8 percent), Jharkhand (4.1 percent), and Madhya Pradesh (3.9 percent).

Almost 50.5 percent of them are illeterate. “This percentage makes a mockery of the Right to Education Act which makes elementary education a Constitutional entitlement for every child between the ages of 6 and 14,” says Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children.