Home is Best for All Mankind

Those of us who are keenly aware of how life out of a defined home – life in the midst of strangers – is, might not consider it wise to express any disapproval towards government’s desire to have street kids relocated to their homes, or at least a place they can comfortably call home.

Street kids might spend their nights under roofs, eat good food from their daily alms and appear to be satisfied with how they live; yet above everything, what they need most is a place they can call home; a place where they will feel deep within their souls that they belong.

It is a fact that they always desire to have someone around them on whom they can lean when misfortunes strike. Yet, while they remain in streets – in places where they are reportedly abused in different ways – such tidings remain as far-fetched as gold dust. Life there in the streets treats them unfairly – or may be fairly, since that is its nature: peace, comfort and harmony can never be guaranteed in streets.

From the beginning of this millennium, or thereabout, street kids – both males and females – have been constant victims of all kinds of abuse, both physical and sexual. And since the perpetrators have not always been successfully brought to book, it is wise to take these kids away from harm’s way. They are human beings, and nothing separates them from the indisputable position of them being such in all kinds.

They have taken streets to be their homes because that is where they feel they can find the ultimate hope for their survival. Some of them have been driven out of their real homes by their own parents and are left with only one option: to call the streets home. They can be forgiven for that, for that is where they find hope and comfort; that is wherever they hang, and that is where they always feel they belong.

Street kids have perceptions of all mankind and their feelings are not completely manipulated by the illusory comfort of life in the streets. They, at one point in time, develop a sentimental longing towards home. This is their real home where they have to belong; and in fact, where they always feel they belong.

We, as human beings, might take different directions and stay in different places, but something will still haunt us. This is the desire to go back home. Of course, some have argued before that home is wherever one feels comfortable and wherever one finds all what they need; nevertheless, real home will always beckon us towards it, naturally.

And in streets, no one belongs, even if some may feel they do. That is why street kids duly need to be taken back home. All we need to do is to welcome them and give them an embrace of brotherhood or sisterhood. The social status of the families in which they were born, their physical condition or the state of whether they have parents or not should not alien them from mankind; they too, are human beings and need to belong among human beings.

There are parents who fell out with their kids, and subsequently resorted to chasing them out of their homes. My plea to them is to forgive them and forget everything so that a new life – a renewed one – may blossom between or among them. This might be the most intriguing experiences of their lives. Let the kid/s be received back like the biblical prodigal son and be embraced with many smiles. That will again make them feel human; it will revive the hope they once had and open a new chapter in their lives.

One thing that will always remain so is that no human being is completely detached from the race of mankind, for by default, he is part of it. All street kids, no matter where they were born, have some relations or, at least someone so close to them that they can take them as their next father or mother or brother or sister. If we have the potential of living with them, let us do so and save the futures of these street kids.

Of course, there are some street kids – and they are likely to be many for that matter – who may present some resistance towards the ‘relocation’ exercise. Such kids need some psychological counseling so that they understand that no one belongs to the streets. They might have undergone terrible experiences which drove them to the streets, but the most important thing is that we tell them that there is always a better home beyond the streets; a home that smells sweet because it is always designed to be home.

Time has come – and is fully ripe – that street kids should have the opportunity of redefining home. They should be taken home, where they can, at least be assured of safety and security, and where they can take pride and understand that it is always home even if it may not be so homely. Above everything, street kids, too, like all of us, need a place they can comfortably call home, for home is best for all mankind.