Sterling Publisher She was abandoned at the Sealdah Railway station by her husband as she was barren. When Mashi sought help from the police they gang raped her. But she didn’t feel humiliated. Her husband had done worse. Over time she became the richest and most powerful woman of The Street! "Your brethren you have treated with disrespect You have denied them their simple human rights You have made them stand and wait before you, And not given them a place in your affection You must share with them all, their ignominy" This excerpt from the poem Apomanito by Rabindranath Tagore sums up how street children are shunned and abandoned by society in India. Even though we see them everywhere around us, we prefer to treat them as invisible beings. “Where he’ll be the next day or what he’ll do, I do not know, nor does he.” But Boomba and Toomba and many others like them exist—with their philosophy, their aspirations of life and love, their challenges, thrills and excitements. Is it time society began treating them like human beings? The Street goes beyond and explores the daily struggle for survival of street children, and the freedom they cherish and aspire. Hrishikes Bhattacharya was a professor at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. The present book is the product of intensive research spanning over a decade on street children. Besides publishing extensively on economics and management, the author has published several short stories, two novels in Bengali—Dwandik and Nitya Nithur Danda, and a book of poems in English—Genesis