Delhi Government Proposes Boarding School for Homeless Children

The government allocated a total of 16,278 crore for the education sector in the 2022 Delhi budget.

The Delhi government announced in their budget speech that they will build a boarding school for homeless children (Photo used for representational purposes).

(Photo: The Quint)

The Delhi government proposed to build a state-of-the-art boarding school for children from homeless families. An outlay of 10 crore has been proposed for the project.

Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal said that since the homeless are not voters, no government wants to help them, adding that many are forced to beg.

The CM said, “There are so many innocent children who have been forced into the act of begging. No government wants to help such children because they aren’t voters. We have allocated ten crores rupees to build a residential state of the art school-cum-facility for the upliftment of these children…”

The CM added that the children need emotional and psychological care. In the past, efforts to push children towards care centres have failed, he added.

"This facility will provide the best possible services to these children and nurture their growth so they can be included into the mainstream. We’ll help them lead a life of utmost dignity and develop good citizens in the school…"

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said that children live on roadsides, under flyovers, open spaces, places of worship, railway platforms, etc, and are deprived of basic facilities such as shelter, food, and education.

Sisodia added that while the government has taken measures to provide education to children, they have not been entirely successful because it is not possible to get quality education until basics such as food and shelter are in place.

He said that the boarding school will comprise modern facilities and is aimed at bringing them into the mainstream society.

Other Education-Related Highlights in Delhi Budget

The government allocated a total of 16,278 crore for the education sector. Other proposals in the sector include a school science museum and conversion of all classrooms in the Delhi government schools to digital classrooms in the next four years.

Delhi Teachers University will start providing BEd courses from the next session after getting approval from the centre.

Further, the Delhi government’s Business Blasters scheme, which had been implemented in the Delhi government schools, is now being expanded to private schools. Over 3 lakh students of classes 11 and 12 worked on 51,000 business ideas under the programme.