NEW DELHI (AP) -- Arun Kumar was born to disabled parents, beaten by his grandparents, ran away from home, got a job in a garment factory and had all his savings stolen by the police. He was only 11.
Today, at 13, he shares a cramped, dingy shelter with 63 other runaways and former street kids in New Delhi. He is one of the lucky ones.
Twenty years after the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, multitudes of children across the globe are still suffering from poverty, abuse and disease. Each year, 4 million babies die before they are a month old, 150 million children are engaged in child labor, more than 500 million have been affected by violence and 51 million have fallen so far through the cracks they have not even had their births registered, according to the United Nations. (19 images)
Today, at 13, he shares a cramped, dingy shelter with 63 other runaways and former street kids in New Delhi. He is one of the lucky ones.
Twenty years after the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, multitudes of children across the globe are still suffering from poverty, abuse and disease. Each year, 4 million babies die before they are a month old, 150 million children are engaged in child labor, more than 500 million have been affected by violence and 51 million have fallen so far through the cracks they have not even had their births registered, according to the United Nations. (19 images)
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A street child searches for recyclable material in a garbage dump on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, Thursday, Nov. 19, a day ahead of Universal Children's Day. Twenty years after the U.N. adopted a treaty guaranteeing children's rights, fewer youngsters are dying and more are going to school, but an estimated 1 billion still lack services essential to their survival and development, UNICEF said Thursday. AP / Anupam Nath
A street child displays acrobatic skills with the help of an iron ring during a street show in Katmandu, Nepal, Thursday, Nov. 19. AP / Gemunu Amarasinghe
A stray dog looks on near a group of street children sleeping on a pavement in Katmandu, Nepal, Friday, Nov. 20. AP / Gemunu Amarasinghe
Children eat a meal at a shelter for street children in Katmandu, Nepal, Friday, Nov. 20. AP / Gemunu Amarasinghe
A street child sleeps next to a stray dog, as another looks for fleas in his clothes, in Katmandu, Nepal, Thursday, Nov. 19. AP / Gemunu Amarasinghe
Bangladeshi child laborers work at a balloon workshop in Kamrangir Char, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 19. AP / Pavel Rahman
School children chant morning prayers in an open-air government-run school in Jammu, India, Friday, Nov. 20. AP / Channi Anand
Roha, an infant, is left sleeping on the sidewalk of a busy street in Mumbai, India on Wednesday, Nov. 18. AP / Rafiq Maqbool
Children wash clothes and bathe at a water pipeline surrounded by sewage in Mumbai, India on Wednesday, Nov. 18. AP / Rafiq Maqbool
Dinesh, 8, cuts rose stems outside a flower shop in Gauhati, India on Wednesday, Nov. 18. AP / Anupam Nath
Sheela, 6, walks the tightrope during a street performance in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, Nov. 18. AP / Anupam Nath
Children play in a rickshaw at a garbage dump in Hyderabad, India on Tuesday, Nov. 17. AP / Mahesh Kumar A
Children study in a yard with scrap collected for recycling, in Hyderabad, India, Friday, Nov. 20. AP / Mahesh Kumar A
School children attend classes in an open-air government-run school in Jammu, India, Friday, Nov. 20. AP / Channi Anand
Children from impoverished families attend a class at a government-run school in Gauhati, India, Friday, Nov. 20. AP / Anupam Nath
Leonardo Sanchez, 12, tries to pull cactus spines from his hands as a relative cuts more cactus pads at the La Merced market in Mexico City. The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child 20 years ago, yet millions of children the world over still suffer from violence and abuse, hunger and disease. AP / Gregory Bull
Internally displaced women line up to receive therapeutic food for their children at a food distribution centre run by an organization called CAACID, funded by the UN agencies and European Union, in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Nov. 15. AFP / Getty Images / Mohamed Dahir
Children gather to celebrate children's rights in Harare, Friday, Nov. 20. AP
Children push a cart through a darkened street in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Nov. 20. AP / Mustafa Quraishi
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