Karnataka   

17 runaway children back home

EMOTIONAL REUNION: A woman and her son overcome with emotion in Hubli on Monday.

HUBLI: It was a memorable and emotional reunion with their parents for the 17 children here on Monday. While some spoke in choked voices, some could not utter a single word and tears rolling down their cheeks explained it all.

These children who had left home for flimsy reasons had spent a few days together, in some cases months together on railway platforms, bus stations and on pavements. They had vowed never to return home until a non-governmental organisation found them and motivated them to go back and lead a normal life.

Society for Assistance to Children in Difficult Situation (SATHI), a Raichur-based NGO, had found them in difficult conditions and had organised the reunion programme after putting them through a one-month orientation programme.

Happiness was palpable on the faces of the parents who had come from various districts, including Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag, Raichur, Tumkur, Chikmagalur, and Davangere districts to take back their children.

While some children explained why they had left their “homes” and how they spent days afterwards, their parents listening to them could not control their emotions. Some of the reasons for these children leaving their native places was scolding by parents, poor marks in examination and so on.

At the end of the programme, the organisers handed over the custody of the children to their parents with one last word of advice to the children.

Field Officer for SATHI C.B. Mallikarjun said although they were able to trace the parents of 22 children, only 17 boys were sent back as the parents of the remaining boys could not reach Hubli on Monday. “They are in touch with us and the boys would be handed over to them soon after they contact us”, he said.

However, the parents of three boys could not be traced and steps were being taken to give them a normal life through assistance from philanthropists and other organisations, he said.

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

Stories in this Section

Man ‘kills’ four members of family
BJP to ask for ban on iron ore export
Panel favours airport at Mopa
A truck load of tomatoes for Deputy Commissioner
On communalising education
Ministers review development works
17 runaway children back home
Time running out for ecology?
Water scarcity looms over Gulbarga
Bail for eight cancelled in former MLA’s murder case
Village tense
Four RTPS units running
Survey of India’s help sought in Hogenakkal dispute
Car festival celebrated at Malekal
‘Jagriti rath yatra’ enters State
Weather office keeps hopes of good monsoon alive
Bellary, Raichur getting ready for State Olympics
Whatever it takes to attract rains
Book released
Inundated
Call to sensitise officials on problems of ‘special children’
Left parties to campaign against nuclear deal

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu