Methodology

RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

Street children make up a large percentage of the invisible urban poor population and are adversely affected by how their identity is shaped in urban area.7 These children’s families lack legal identity documents and face a range of problems, as follows: these people cannot register their residency, have utilities installed, or obtain access to credit or get benefits of government’s provisions they are entitled to. Study shows that without legal documentations, the urban poor are constrained in their ability to engage with public officials about service delivery to their homes. This situation is exacerbated in times of disaster, when relief assistance (cash or in-kind) is distributed to the people holding registration records, bank accounts etc.

Lack of proof of identity has a negative impact on the protection of rights for children in street situations in relation to education, health and other social services, justice, inheritance and family reunification. Important among all are the birth certificate that plays a crucial role especially during admission in schools or college, hospital benefits etc. as well as an important document to be used to obtain Domicile/Nativity certificates. Similarly, Caste Certificates for SCs, STs and OBCs are equally important because based on valid Caste Certificates, the reserved categories of children would be able to i) waive off a part or the whole of the fees for admission to colleges and vocational training institutions, ii) get seat reservations in educational institutes, iii) get age relaxation for applying to certain jobs or secure jobs in Govt establishments, banks, PSUs etc and iv) get other facilities by the Govt to the members of SC, ST and OBC. Orphan children who can not avail caste certificates are eligible to obtain Orphan certificates to get benefits on the aspects mentioned above. Notably, Rainbow Homes Program aims to rehabilitate, educate and prepare children in street situations for their re-integration into the society upon reaching age of maturity, focusing on the development of their potential and capabilities, so that they can live independent or semiindependent livings as young adults. In order to ensure Young Adults’ (YA) smooth transitioning from Rainbow’s care to adulthood, the organization adopted a coordinated set of transition activities including facilitation of post-secondary education, vocational training, job-related skill trainings with various institutions etc. Among these interventions, the provisions of legal identity documents for YAs stands important to gain access to basic services and protection in the justice system outside Rainbow’s care. More than 90 percent of the children living under the care of Rainbow Homes Program and their families belonging to these marginalized and reserved categories lacking any of such documentary proof to state their date of birth, nativity, caste/ community, religion, economic status, orphan status, disability etc are unable to access to any such services and benefits. Without these identities and entitlement documents, their presence in unaccounted and invisible to the society and system and they remain out of the safety net and protective measures.

7 Social Inclusion and the Urban Poor; Judy L. Baker, Gauri U. Gadgil; July 2017

Some of the key challenges these children and families face to apply for these identities and entitlement documents are lack of parental proof, lack of place of origin, no birth registration or birth record. As many of them are migrant families having no land record or record of their nativity, they lack community support to ascertain their caste. Lack of proper information and awareness among the children and families and lack of helping hand also are the reasons that is making them perpetual losers of their due entitlements. The young adults of the organization and the team has been struggling to access required legal identity documents, mainly the caste certificate, birth certificates and residential proof as a result of which YAs during transition to adulthood are facing problem in admission for higher studies, vocational trainings, healthcare facilities, job placements, among entitlements. The organizations dealing with children in different circumstances, especially children in street situations, orphan children, stateless children /refugee etc., also struggle to provide the children relevant identity documents. In this given context, Rainbow Home Programme has initiated a concerted effort at internal and external level to extend help the children access their genuine rights and entitlements. At internal level it has been orienting, motivating and supporting the children, their family members and guardians and staff members to access their due entitlements and at external level along with highlighting the issues of these children and families and seeking the attention and necessary support from the concerned government authorities and public representatives. Also, the pertinent issues and challenges are further shared with the like-minded individuals and civil society organizations and collaborate taking effort to find solutions. Hence, the study also tried to understand the processes followed and challenges faced by other child rights organizations working with children, in order to access legal identity documents for children under their care.

METHODOLOGY

Objectives

Considering the gravity of present situation, the present study carried out detailed interaction with govt officials of relevant department responsible for issuing entitlements for children along with interactions with state/home team and few children under the care of Rainbow Homes, who have gone through process of accessing different entitlements for children. The study aims to provide a detailed process of applying for legal identities for children in difficult circumstances which can serve as important guidelines for child right practitioners. It is hoped that the study will also serve as an important advocacy document to initiate dialogue with policy makers and government authorities to draw a permanent mechanism to look into the

anomalies that have crept into the whole procedure of issuance and verification of important legal certificates. The major objectives are to understand; - The existing Acts, Rules and Amendments for different entitlements across study states, Government’s policies and laid out processes to access different entitlements/ identities for all citizens and/or special social categories in the sample states. - The processes adopted by few child care organizations in sample cities in providing legal identity documents to the children in their care. - The practical challenges faced by the sample of young adults (16+ age group) and team members under the care of Rainbow Homes Program in accessing legal identity documents, going through the standard laid out processes. - The critical challenges faced by rainbow’s YAs who are migrated from other states belonging to particular castes which are not accepted in study states.

Sample selection and study design

The study was piloted with a random sample of group of YAs (16-18 years age) under Rainbow’s care to understand challenges faced by them while accessing the entitlement documents. The YAs were categorized into two groups; a) the YAs who accessed some of the legal identity documents and b) the YAs who have not yet applied for identity documents or applied but facing challenges in accessing those. Sample Cities: 5 cities viz. Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Patna and Delhi Number of YAs: 15-20 YAs from sample cities for FGDs. Of them, some YAs have not have received most of important legal identity documents whereas some received few documents either through the staff of the organization or through their parents. A sub sample of 3-4 YAs from the mail cohort and 1 or 2 Home team members from each city selected for action research to check practical challenges while applying different legal identity documents. Besides, interactions and interviews with officials of other NGOs also included discussion points to collect their recommendations and reflections on possible solution in providing relevant identity documents to the children who lack parental or documental proof. The organizations selected randomly for the study were: i) Navjeevan Don Bosco, Hyderabad ii) BOSCO Yuva Kendra, Bangalore iii) Baale Maane Trust, Delhi iv) Udayan Care, Delhi v) Salam Balak Trust, Delhi vi) Sneha Home – Sanlaap – the home for girls vii) SOS Children’s Village, Kolkata

Types of Legal Identity Documents: Even though there are at least eighteen legal identity documents currently recognized as acceptable proofs of identity in developing countries like India, the present study explores the government laid-down processes and bottlenecks to access the following four major documents required by children and young people to get relevant government provisions. The four major documents studied in the present report are: i) Birth certificate, ii) Nativity/ Domicile Certificate, iii) Caste/ Community certificate and iv) Orphan certificate

Data collection process

On the first hand, relevant information on existing Acts, Rules and Amendments for different identity documents, Government’s policies across study states and laid-down processes of accessing various identity documents for citizens/ special social categories were collected through primary literature reviews. Questions such as, what are the different provisions of entitlements/identities in study states; what are the forms/formats to be filled up, what are the documents and registration fees to be submitted to access those entitlements etc. were explored in the literature review phase. Secondly, the study followed qualitative research methods including FGDs with sample young adults of Rainbow Homes across sample cities as well as state team and home team members who have gone through process of accessing different entitlements for children. Individual interviews conducted with govt officials of relevant departments responsible for issuing various legal identity documents to citizens. Apart from that a very small sub-sample of young adults were involved to carry an action research of applying for above mentioned identity documents in their respective cities to document the processes and challenges faced to go by the laid down process. The study envisaged, i) Qualitative Research Method that included, - FGDs with Home team or focal persons responsible for coordinating the access to children’s legal identity documents at the sample States. - FGD with randomly selected based on two criteria: a) YAs who accessed some of the entitlements and b) YAs who have not yet applied for entitlement documents or applied but facing challenges in accessing those. - Individual Interview with NGO representatives from the sample NGOs mentioned above to know the best practices, if any, in accessing legal identity documents. - Interview with a randomly selected official from State Government authorized authorities responsible for issuing the documents. Individual interviews with an open –ended questionnaire carried out with officials at different departments in study states. o For Domicile certificate: Tehsildar from Revenue department – Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Patna