“Why do you think children run away?” asked Noor, a 23-year-old man who had been a runaway himself and was giving our family a tour of the streets of Delhi and sharing his story.
“Poverty.” My fifteen-year-old son guessed.
“Violence,” said my sixteen-year-old daughter.
Noor nodded. “Yes, those are the reasons, but often, too, for girls it is because they don’t want to burden their parents with the cost of a dowry. For boys it can be because they want to star in a Bollywood movie.” It is estim...