The Hindu : Karnataka News : Parental pressure also a cause for children leaving home

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka

Parental pressure also a cause for children leaving home

Special Correspondent

Public hearing discusses reasons for the problem
Bangalore accounts for the highest number of missing children

BANGALORE: Did you know that parental pressure to perform well in academics is affecting children so much that the number of children missing from their houses increases during the examination time in the State.

Disclosing this to reporters in Bangalore at the sidelines of a public hearing on “missing children” organised by Child Rights Trust (CRT) on Tuesday, CRT Executive Director Vasudeva Sharma said normally the number of cases of missing children increase just before the examinations and after the examinations.

Mr. Sharma, who also heads the Child Welfare Committee-Bangalore, which has been constituted by the Government to look into the problems related to children, said the number of parents who approach the committee with grievances like missing wards, increases during the examination period.

In fact, there were instances of children as young as 6 years running away from home.

He stressed the need for not bringing too much pressure on children to perform well in examinations.

In addition to academic pressure, parental attitude was also another reason for the children running away from their homes.

Citing examples, he said frequent quarrelling between parents and alcoholic fathers who indulge in wife-beating and abusing, were also reasons for the children running away from their houses.

Of course, the city attraction and the dream of making it big in cities was one of the factors for rural children to leave their houses.

But contrary to the public perception, poverty was not the main reason for the problem, he said.

Bangalore, the country’s IT capital, accounts for the highest number of missing children in the State.

Another cause for worry is that the number of missing children is increasing steadily in the State. While 4,707 children had gone missing in 2004, the number has increased to 4,952 and 5,099 in 2005 and 2006.

In Bangalore, the number of missing children was 2,208 and 2,316 during 2005 and 2006, respectively.

As many as 403, 421 and 667 children who went missing in 2004, 2005 and 2006 are yet to be traced.

Mr. Vasudeva Sharma says that the actual number of missing children will be much more than these figures as a large number of such cases had not been registered with the police.

He suggested that the parents should take steps to ensure that their wards memorise their addresses and telephone numbers so that it would be easy for others, including police, to trace their parents if children go missing.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka