Bengaluru: Child Welfare Committee’s ‘rescue act’ backfires

Bengaluru: There was confusion at the state-run boy’s home of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Hosur road on Monday, when representatives of a Yelahanka-based madrasa approached the CWC members and demanded that they release students they have ‘rescued’ suspecting them to be victims of child trafficking.

According to madrasa representatives, over 40 boys belonging to minority community and hailing from Bihar, were on their way to Bengaluru by train along with two guardians to pursue religious courses at a madrasa in Yelahanka.

When the group reached Chennai railway station, a group of volunteers suspected that these children, aged between 13 and 15, were victims of trafficking and informed the CWC members. The CWC staff swung into action and with the help of the railway police, rescued the 40 boys and brought them to the city on August 5. “The boys were housed at the government boys’ home on Hosur Road since then. It has now been 27 days since they were rescued and the CWC had not bothered to get in touch with their parents or guardians,” Syed Sajjauddin, a local representative told Deccan Chronicle.

Harried parents of the minor boys who got in touch with the madrasa representatives did not have any clue about the whereabouts of the boys. When madrasa representatives, along with local religious leaders, came to know that the children were in the custody of CWC, they approached the authorities on August 31 and demanded their release.

They reiterated that the boys were not victims of trafficking and had come to the city to attend religious courses. The volunteers along with the CWC had suspected that it to be a case of child trafficking, because the minor boys were not carrying any documents with them. They were neither carrying any IDs nor any documents to substantiate that they were going to pursue religious courses in Bengaluru. The madrasa representatives clarified that children were from poor economic backgrounds from Bihar and come to the city during Ramadan holidays to pursue religious courses.

These courses are offered free of cost and hence no IDs or documents certificates were required. Moreover, when the boys were detained by the Chennai volunteers, they faced a communication problem – while the boys could speak only Urdu, the volunteers and CWC staff knew only Tamil, said a representative. After getting convinced, the CWC handed over the children to madrasa
representatives. However, now the confusion arose over the total number of boys that were rescued and those released. “They rescued 46 boys from Chennai and now they (CWC) had released only 40. They are not forthcoming about what happened to six others,” said Riyaz, another representative.