Muktangan is a collaboration between the Railway Protection Force and 'Praajak', a Kolkata-based NGO that aims at the rehabilitation of destitute children found in railway areas. I visited Muktangan Asansol and found that they are actually not disrupting the basic patterns of living, working and recreation that the children had worked out for themselves, but are trying to create a better environment in which these children can understand what is right or wrong for their future.

Muktangan is situated in the old fire brigade office of Asansol. It is a really nice place to start such an institution and the place was actually provided by the RPF unit of Asansol station as the fire brigade has changed its office to a better position leaving this place vacant for decades until now. Praajak is also in charge of Muktangan centres at Malda and Kharagpur stations. They also have an office at Asansol which is situated beside Dolly Lodge, Burnpur road.

My first visit was on Wednesday 5th of July, 2006. After entering the place I found some children. Among them a few were nathing while others were preparing for their lunch as the time was around 1.00 p.m. I noticed the eldest guy among them was trying to light up their so-called ‘chullah’. I went up to him and asked him about the members of Praajak, but I was told that Wednesdays and Sundays are holidays so they are available on other weekdays. His name was Pintu and he works as a cook over there. Previously he used to earn his livelihood by brooming the train compartments and selling off used pet bottles. Now not only does he cook over there but he likes studying as well. He is no more in his old occupation and is looking for a better job to earn a better living for himself and his family as well. After talking with him for a few minutes I found there that there were only 9 children present at that time and the others were busy at the station premises working hard to get some extra bucks for their living so that they may have to work less the next day. I then spoke to the others and found that they all do the same job of ‘brooming’ the train compartments as well as selling empty pet water bottles which are abandoned by the railway commuters. I then decided to visit them later in the evening and returned back to my home. Later in the evening I visited Muktangan again and met Rohit, whose home is in the outskirts of Patna. He said he was working with Praajak in Asansol and but he is mainly from CRY and they sent him here to work for Praajak. After that day I regularly started visiting Muktangan and met most of the children who visit or stay there.

There are around 50 children who work on and around the Asansol station premises but only twenty-five to thirty basically visit Muktangan. And among these thirty only fifteen to seventeen are regular. The children who do not visit Muktangan are locals who come with their parents at the station and after they have done with the jobs, they return home.

The children who stay there are taught how to keep themselves clean. They are provided with toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, towels, etc. They have been provided with personal lockers where they keep their belongings whenever they set out for the day. A night-shelter has been also set up there in which they sleep at night. During the day they are taught in their small school, which is present in the Muktangan premises itself. This has led to a significant drop in the crime rate in the station premises. Painting, sculpting, cooking, and some startlingly beautiful poems and songs are taking shape in the classes. Rituals, games and festivals — freely, often eccentrically improvised — are beginning to structure their notions of lived, imagined and remembered time, their friendships, and their relations with their natural and human environments. Notions of hygiene and of sexual health; learning to respect and to care for their own bodies and those of others; to manage various forms of physical disability (polio, amputated limbs) in a world that resolutely looks away; and, more than anything else, to create quite literally out of nothing, and often from the very heart of loss, the seeds of self-esteem, dignity, trust, delight and hope. But problems remain. Dendrite addiction, though considerably reduced, constantly threatens to undo many of the efforts. The meals for these children are mainly provided by the mid-day meal scheme of the government and sometimes they themselves contribute money for eggs, fish, meat, etc.

After regularly visiting these children at Muktangan as well as in the station premises I came to know lots of things about them. Most of them have run away from their homes because of domestic torture, some are orphans and some are mentally not so fit to go back to their homes because they feel safe at the station premises. The children whom I personally visited are as follows:
1. Md Zalil, 16 yrs, home Gaya, Bihar
2. Jay Raj Gupta, 14 yrs, Sealdah, Kolkata
3. Chandan Kumar Singh, Barakar, WB
4. Vijay Saroj, 16 yrs, Banaras, UP
5. Munna Sheikh 16 yrs, Durgapur, WB
6. Md Shabaz Alam, 11 yrs, Asansol, WB
7. Azharuddin, 12 yrs, Neamatpur, WB
8. Md Azad, 12 yrs, Andal,WB, one leg amputated
These children have all run away from their homes and do not want to go back there.
9. Sunny Kumar, 7 yrs, Asansol,
10. Sukru, 6 yrs, Ranigang,WB
11. Hyder Ali, 11 yrs, Asansol
12. Bishu Adhikari, 8 yrs, Sitarampur,WB
13. Raju 4yrs and Sunita 7 yrs, Asansol
14. Md Khurshid, 15 yrs, Asansol
15. Pintu Ali, 17 yrs, Asansol
16. Swapan Biswas 14 yrs, Asansol station
17. Ram, 14 yrs, Sitarampur, WB
18. Bhim Kumar Shaw,7 yrs, Burdwan, WB. left hand amputated
19. Md Muharram, 11 yrs, orphan
20. Md Dilsar and Raja, 7 yrs and 5 yrs, Asansol
21. Md Feeroz,15 yrs, Asansol
22. Ravi Paswan, 12 yrs, Burdwan, orphan, was in juvenile custody earlier
23. Raju 14 yrs, Deaf and dumb
24. Ashis, 17 yrs, Deaf and dumb
25. Chandni Kumari, 6 yrs female, Sitarampur.
26. Akhtar Ansari, 11 yrs, Asansol.
27. Md Sahnawaz, 12 yrs, Asansol
28. Rajesh Shaw 16 yrs, Asansol
Among the above children there are those who stay with their families, some of them are orphans, but there are children who are the sole earning members within their family. Actually most of these families reside at the station premises as they don’t have proper home or shelter to stay.

The children at Muktangan are mainly taught how to make a decent living by helping them with new business opportunities such as making them sell gas lighters, books, water, etc. they are also provided proper education here and most of them have started to read and write. The basic average incomes of these children are from Rs. 30 to Rs. 80 per day. But there are guys who incur more by working hard; they have an average income of Rs. 150 to Rs. 250 per day. The habit of stealing is normal with these children and this often happens at Muktangan premises. But this has reduced considerably as they are now trying to understand the consequences.

Praajak collects Rs. 3 from each child for their meals i.e. Rs. 6 per day. When I asked Yuveka Singh, a Praajak coordinator about this because I knew about the mid-day meal funding from the government, I was told that they run a concept known as ‘Sanjha Chullah’ where each child contributes a part of their earnings for their meal. This is done to instill a sense of ownership and respect for oneself in the children. The ultimate aim is to replace the Mid-Day Meal programme with the Sanjha Chulha programme, and to set up a community kitchen with the money that is being earned now. There is also a Savings Programme for the kids which encourages these children to regularly deposit money which is then transferred to the savings account in Praajak, and later distributed to them. This has been very successful at Malda and they are now trying it at Asansol Muktangan so that these children get into the habit of saving money regularly.

Now some of them are growing older and looking forward to doing something better in future for their living. They are very much interested in leaving the station premises in the near future because they now understand that the world out there is very big and there may be opportunities waiting for them which may change their lives and make them a better human being. I have felt that doing something for these children here would really mean something for me as I have learnt lots of things about them and would let you all know about the progress of Muktangan in near future.