BHUBANESWAR: The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Khurda district has imposed ban on child marathon prodigy Buddhia Singh's proposed 500-km walk from the capital city to Kolkata on June 6.

The direction has been issued to Buddhia Singh Trust (BST), which is organising the marathon walk, said CWC Chairperson R. S Mishra here on Saturday.

"The BST has decided to make the child walk 500 km in the summer season, which is a serious human rights violation of a child. The Section 31 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act has given us adequate power to intervene in the matter where a child's human right is at risk," Mr. Mishra said.

No objections

Three members of CWC were present in Saturday's meeting while the remaining two were consulted over telephone on the issue, which had attracted much of the attentions in recent times.

He made it clear that the committee had no objections to organising the marathon walk but the child could not be engaged on that day.

The BST had announcement that Buddhia would embark on a walk from here to Kolkata covering a distance of 500 km in 11 days.

In the invitation letter sent to Chief Minister's Office, it was mentioned that BST was organising the event to create awareness among children preparing to take up sports as career and it clearly indicated that the child was to be engaged for some other's benefit, the CWC chairperson said.

The CWC also decided to issue summon to Biranchi Das, who claimed to be the foster father of Buddhia Singh and managing trustee of BST, before the committee. "We have not decided as to which date he will have to appear before us to help our inquiry process but it is sure that it will happen before the marathon walk," Mr. Mishra said.

Legal recourse

The CWC would inquire if Buddhia Singh would be engaged for sake of some other persons' financial benefit.

Reacting to the decision, Mr. Das said, "I have not received any communication from CWC. If at all they have banned the walk, I will never obey it. The show will go on." The committee had taken the decision without consulting the BST as to how it was proceeding with its plan to highlight issue relating to sports in 40 cities, he said adding that if any summon was issued against him, BST would take legal recourse.

About a year ago, a 65-km run from Puri to Bhubaneswar by the Buddhia Singh had kicked off similar controversies with sports physicians commenting that long running at such a tender age would create health problem for the child in future.

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