Introduced by Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), the programme has already equipped 23 street children with a first-aid box and an identity card each. ``Reti Bunder in Mahim is swarming with over 5,000 homeless people, including nearly 400 children. They ignore all common ailments and visit municipal hospitals only when the condition is critical,'' says Bijay Singh Chauhan, a 19-year-old Bal Doctor from the area.

Kamini Mane, a social worker with YUVA explains that Bal Doctors will also serve as a link with people who are embarrassed to talk to social workers about HIV and other sexually transmitteddiseases. ``The children were trained by Piyush Chakravarti at a five-day camp held at Dahanu last month at a cost of Rs 1,500 per child,'' adds YUVA representative Abbas Rangwani.

The children are keen to extend their services to road and train accidents as well. At present, youngsters like Gopal handle accident victims on the railway tracks, but only after being ordered to do so by the Government Railway Police and the Station Superintendent. ``This could be anywhere up to three hours after the accident. If Bal Doctors were given the powers, we could swiftly take the injured to the nearest hospital, thereby saving a life,'' says Gopal who informs that volunteers are paid Rs 40 per body by the railway authorities.

Another Bal Doctor Naresh Rathod complains that when he took one of the street children to a reputed municipal hospital for an operation, the doctor refused to ``operate on such a dirty boy.'' Others like Dutta Jadhav demand that Bal Doctors be provided uniforms for easy identification. ``A fewdays ago, we found a sick man on the platform at Dadar station. We carried him outside and gave him some food. When we approached the station master for help, he just fired us saying that the food we gave him was responsible for his condition,'' complains Jadhav.

Ublesh Mani (18) hopes his new status would provide him protection from police officers who demand hafta. ``The women constables admonish children for selling their wares in trains, demand Rs 55 as fine and then pick up a few trinkets themselves. Even if we are trying to help an injured person in a road or rail accident, policemen beat us up assuming we are at fault,'' reveals Mani.

A number of these Bal Doctors are reformed drug, alcohol and nicotine addicts. Having overcome the compulsions of gutka, mandrax and ganja consumption himself, 17-year-old Rupesh Kumar has found the perfect remedy for curing other addicts.

``If we come across anyone inhaling stuff like this, we just take it away from him and destroy it,'' he grins. With Kumar'snew-found doctor status, chances are, they will now listen to him.