Mumbai is the land of opportunities and is the city of skyscrapers, celebrities and glamour.  Thousands of immigrant families come here in search of employment and find themselves on the streets.  The children grow up on the street, having to fend for themselves, often having to contribute to their own upkeep or having to attend to a dysfunctional parent with added concerns of abuse both mental and physical.

 Mumbai also attracts street children who are run-aways or who are orphans and have no family to call their own.  These street children are more prone to sexual exploitation and their patterns of behavior are more likely to involve drug intake to get through the indignities and challenges of the day and sleep through the night.

The lack of education opportunities mean that street children are caught in an unending cycle of poverty which prevents opportunity which in turn leads to poverty.

 The mental, social and emotional growth of children are also affected by their nomadic lifestyles and the way in which they are chastised by authorities who constantly expel them from their temporary homes such as doorways, park benches, and railway platforms. 

Yet street children exhibit an amazing resilience and positive approach to life, under the most difficult circumstances.  They are able to survive and fend for themselves in an adult and unforgiving environment and while they lose much of their innocence, they retain a playfulness and excitement that only childhood brings.  They also retain a faint and distant hope that things can change, that the situation is still mellifluous.  It is this that allows for the rehabilitation of street children.

Salaam Baalak Trust provides a holistic safety net of services catering to the individual needs of street children in Mumbai, covering the entire area of child development from physical and medical needs to encompassing the educational, creative, cognitive, social and vocational needs of the children.

Since 1989, Salaam Baalak Trust has continued to work with children in South Mumbai and is now seen as a permanent resource available for children on the street.