There are an estimated six million children scraping a living on the streets of urban India.

Some labour as porters at busy bus or railway terminals, others work the traffic signals all day in the blazing heat, choking on car fumes. 

In Delhi, outside of the city’s humdrum centre, there is a vast emaciated army of children who hunt through piles of the city’s waste looking for something to sell for a few rupees.

They are known to the authorities as 'rag pickers', and their appearance – haggard, scarred, filthy – is enough to shock anyone out of their comfort zone.

TV presenter Gail Porter says she was no exception.
The 34-year-old, who recently flew out to India with international anti-poverty agency ActionAid, said: "I've never seen anything like that in my life. I didn't know places like that existed. To see people living like that is terrible."

Edinburgh-born Gail has been involved with ActionAid since she started sponsoring a seven-year-old boy from India called Ganga Maokami.

The trip was an opportunity for her to develop her understanding of child poverty and to help to raise awareness of the issue ahead of ActionAid’s annual fundraiser Lick Child Poverty Day (Friday September 30).

Delhi is an assault on the senses, nowhere more so than the fetid urban slums where Gail was introduced to a group of street children.

"The stench in the places we visited was awful. But by the time we were finished we were used to it - like the kids are. But we can go home and shower and they can't. 

"When we went to the rag picking district we were all speechless. I couldn’t believe that children, some as young as five, lived like that. We turned up in our cars with our cameras and here are these kids earning less than 20p a day, living in a rubbish pit. “
Gail says she found it particularly poignant as she herself has a 3-year-old daughter.

"As a mum it makes you think even more. Some of these kids are Honey's age. They should be out on bikes and playing with their friends. It makes you realise how lucky you are. It's the luck of where you're born.

"I want to take Honey out there one day, because I think it is really important for her to see how lucky she is and for her to learn about other people."

Delhi’s 15 million residents at best ignore the city’s hundreds of thousands of street children and at worse abuse, beat and attack them. But despite a life of unending struggle, Gail said their outlook on life was amazing.

"It breaks your heart yet they are so cheerful and full of life. It was really humbling to meet those people.

"I met a 17-year-old kid with polio who had the most amazing outlook on life. There was another kid who had been beaten and treated appallingly, but he wanted to be a singer – and he got up and sang for us. There was such a look of hope in their faces."

Hope for some of the street children comes in the form of centres that work with the impoverished youngsters to help them form groups and communities through which they can come together and fight for their rights.

Gail, who visited a couple of the ActionAid funded learning centres, said:

"Their parents can’t afford to send them to school – it is expensive for them, and they need their children to be bringing home money. But here they have a chance to drop in to a place were people can help them and it makes a big difference to their lives.

"ActionAid is doing such a good job and the kids seem so happy. We sat and had a chat with the older kids, and they wanted to know all about London – ‘is it a place of dreams’, they asked. They wanted to know all about our lives."

The visit has left Gail determined to do her bit to help in the fight against child poverty.

"I have now seen things first hand and it’s made me see that there are lots and lots of problems we need to address. It has made me determined to go back out and to do as much as possible to help. We have to get out of this situation. You can’t have five-year-old children working all day long.

Gail is now calling on the public to get involved in ActionAid’s 2005, Lick Child Poverty Day (Friday 30 September 2005) – a fundraising marathon in aid of the 600million children across the world living in extreme poverty.

People throughout the UK are stepping out of the grown-up world for a day and organising child-like fundraisers, such as a school uniform day at work or a yo-yo competition.

"We have the opportunity to enjoy a safe and secure childhood, free from poverty. We’re hoping that the big kid in us will take part in all the fun and raise a load of cash to lick child poverty for good."

ActionAid Head of Community Fundraising Simon Molloy said: "The question we are asking is simple. Is the joy of childhood reserved only for a small minority of privileged children? It shouldn’t be."