Chandni Khan born in is an Indian activist and editor working for the welfare of

street children Street children are poor or homeless children who live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids, or urchins; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policymakers ...

in different parts of India. She founded the

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

, Voice of Slum along with Dev Pratap Singh. She was the editor of the newspaper ''Balaknama'', literally meaning "voice of children", published in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. She is also called Chandni Di, the word ''di'' meaning "older sister" in some Indian languages.

Life and education

Chandni was a homeless child herself. At the age of five, she started performing street shows with her father in

Noida Noida (), short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (ISO: ), is a city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. As per provisional reports of Census of India, the population of Noida in 2011 was ...

. He died in 2008, after which she and her mother survived by ragpicking and selling flowers at traffic intersections. She was twelve when she met some volunteers of CHETNA, an NGO that facilitates education and healthcare for underprivileged children. With the NGO's assistance, Chandni enrolled into an open school programme in 2010.

Career

In 2010, Chandni started working as a trainee reporter at ''Balaknama'', a newspaper brought out by and for street children in Delhi. CHETNA started the newspaper and continues to support it. Four years later, she was promoted to the position of its editor. Simultaneously, she started working for CHETNA's sister NGO ''Badhte Kadam''. As the National Secretary of ''Badhte Kadam'', she has worked for the welfare and rights of homeless children in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

, and

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. She co-founded Voice of Slum in 2015 with her friend Dev Pratap Singh, who had also grown up in slums. The organization, among other things, runs a school in

for children living in low-income neighborhoods. She has delivered talks at different

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

events, Josh Talks and the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

(UNDP).
She has worked with the

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of ch ...

(UNCRC), the

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is an Indian statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005. The Commission works under the aegis of Ministry of ...

(NCPCR),

Child Relief and You Child Rights and You (CRY) is an Indian non-governmental organization (NGO) that works towards ensuring children's rights. The organization was started in 1979 by Rippan Kapur, an Air India purser. CRY works with 102 local NGOs across 19 stat ...

(CRY),

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

, and

Plan A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an Goal, objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a modal logic, temporal set (mathematics), set of intended actions through wh ...

India.

References

External links

Voice of Slum
Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action (CHETNA) i
Member Directory -- Consortium for Street Children
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Chandni Living people Indian women activists Indian children's rights activists Street children 1997 births

Life and education

Career

See also

References

External links