The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : The restrictive atmosphere at home proved too much for them

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 30, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

The restrictive atmosphere at home proved too much for them

Divya Gandhi

Bangalore: The observation home at Madivala from which 46 children escaped is reputed to be one of the best of its kind. Why then were the children compelled to flee?

Former inmates of the home told The Hindu that while the home was comfortable, it was restrictive and the atmosphere sometimes hostile.

This reporter spoke to Kumar, Suresh, Anil and Vijay (names changed to protect their identities) who ranged in age from 11 to 20 about their lives in the home.

Vijay, the youngest, recalled how he was apprehended by the police one morning in his village. He described the day he spent at the police station, handcuffed and beaten up with a cane till his hands and feet swelled up. He speaks almost bashfully of the disturbing events.

By contrast, the observation home in Bangalore where he spent the next nine months, was kinder to him. A staff nurse was there to look after the children's needs, and the food was "not bad".

"We woke up at 6 a.m. After a bath, we were delegated household work — cleaning, cooking, washing clothes and gardening. Breakfast at 8.30 a.m. was followed by classes till lunch. We were taught yoga and could play games like kabaddi, volleyball and carrom." This was Kumar's description of a typical day at the home.

Why then did the children break out? "Maybe they felt confined, and wanted to be independent again," says Kumar, who has worked ever since he was eight years old. Suresh adds that breaking out is easy and recalls how two years ago some of his fellow inmates broke a carrom board and used the pieces to overpower the security guard and escape.

Nomita Chandy, secretary of Ashraya, a child rights organisation that is on the Home Committee of the Observation Home from where the children ran away, is concerned that young offenders remanded for petty theft share space with older boys booked for murder and rape. "There are no age-proof tests conducted here, and this is a matter of concern. This is used as a legal loophole, where the lawyer for a 23-year-old can get a certificate stating that he is 18," says Ms. Chandy.

Kumar was 17 when he was arrested three years ago and served a year in the Central Jail, Tumkur. Lawyers helped identify his age, and the irony is that he was the observation home for juveniles as an adult.

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