More than 60,000 kids disappear every year in the country, most never to be recovered. Anil Pandey chronicles this saga of police and media apathy.
Bittu is 14 years old and clings to his mother Sheila Devi for dear life. No matter how hard we try, it is difficult to make this reticent teenager talk. Hesitantly, with fear haunting his eyes, Bittu tells his story that started near his house in Sangam Vihar, Delhi about five years ago. Then about nine years old, Bittu was playing near his house when someone offered him a laddoo. The next thing he remembers is being mercilessly beaten and forced to clean utensils for a traveling theatre group. Once, his abductors branded a symbol of the deity Ganesha on his arm. Another time, he was so badly beaten that he lost an eye. Bittu says there were more than 50 kids like him who were working like slaves for the group.
Ever since he disappeared in 2008, his parents Sheila and Arvind, who originally belong to Bihar and are daily wage workers in Delhi, kept pleading with the police to help them find their missing son. After much pleading, an FIR was registered and that was that. As far as the cops were concerned, Bittu was just one of seven kids who disappear every day in Delhi. As far as the media was concerned, Bittu and his parents were too poor to waste their anger on. But Bittu was lucky. When he was in a train somewhere near Varanasi in October, 2012, Bittu escaped and managed to reach his village in Bihar. His parents brought him back to Delhi on November 12. Since then, a traumatised and brutalised Bittu is scared to step out of his house and clings to his mother. Of course, the cops have never bothered even once in the last five years to help the family. Says Shiela Devi, “The police has not come to visit us, or even call us for investigating the matter. If they had, maybe my son would have been rescued earlier.”
After the brutal gang-rape and murder of the 23 year old student recently in Delhi, the media and the chattering classes are loudly talking about how women in India, particularly Delhi are very unsafe. There are debates on castration and death penalty for rapists and severe punishments for crimes against women. In all this, we have unfortunately soft pedaled another equally important issue: the shocking number of young children who go missing every year in India, never to be recovered. A study conducted between 2008 and 2010 by Bachpan Bachao Andolan reveals that about 1,20,000 children went missing, an average of 60,000 a year. One out of every four child who went missing remains untracked even years after their absence was reported.
This correspondent chased this story way back in 2008 when nobody seemed bothered about this horrifying and shameful reality of Delhi and of Indian society. The story was indeed praised by some, but most sniggered at the decision of the editorial team to put this out as a cover story. While pursuing this story in 2008, this correspondent had met about two dozen families whose children had gone missing. In almost all cases, it was a familiar tale of police apathy, arrogance and cussedness. “A police officer asked for a bribe of Rs 3,000 to register an FIR and get a missing child ad printed in newspapers from me,” says Azhar, a resident of Jahangirpuri, C Block whose daughter Atika has been missing for more than five years. In almost all cases, the cops simply refused to register an FIR. In any case, the entire media was so engrossed with the murder of the upper middle class girl Arushi Talwar that nobody seemed to have any time for the missing children of the slum dwellers of Delhi.
Bittu is 14 years old and clings to his mother Sheila Devi for dear life. No matter how hard we try, it is difficult to make this reticent teenager talk. Hesitantly, with fear haunting his eyes, Bittu tells his story that started near his house in Sangam Vihar, Delhi about five years ago. Then about nine years old, Bittu was playing near his house when someone offered him a laddoo. The next thing he remembers is being mercilessly beaten and forced to clean utensils for a traveling theatre group. Once, his abductors branded a symbol of the deity Ganesha on his arm. Another time, he was so badly beaten that he lost an eye. Bittu says there were more than 50 kids like him who were working like slaves for the group.
Ever since he disappeared in 2008, his parents Sheila and Arvind, who originally belong to Bihar and are daily wage workers in Delhi, kept pleading with the police to help them find their missing son. After much pleading, an FIR was registered and that was that. As far as the cops were concerned, Bittu was just one of seven kids who disappear every day in Delhi. As far as the media was concerned, Bittu and his parents were too poor to waste their anger on. But Bittu was lucky. When he was in a train somewhere near Varanasi in October, 2012, Bittu escaped and managed to reach his village in Bihar. His parents brought him back to Delhi on November 12. Since then, a traumatised and brutalised Bittu is scared to step out of his house and clings to his mother. Of course, the cops have never bothered even once in the last five years to help the family. Says Shiela Devi, “The police has not come to visit us, or even call us for investigating the matter. If they had, maybe my son would have been rescued earlier.”
After the brutal gang-rape and murder of the 23 year old student recently in Delhi, the media and the chattering classes are loudly talking about how women in India, particularly Delhi are very unsafe. There are debates on castration and death penalty for rapists and severe punishments for crimes against women. In all this, we have unfortunately soft pedaled another equally important issue: the shocking number of young children who go missing every year in India, never to be recovered. A study conducted between 2008 and 2010 by Bachpan Bachao Andolan reveals that about 1,20,000 children went missing, an average of 60,000 a year. One out of every four child who went missing remains untracked even years after their absence was reported.
This correspondent chased this story way back in 2008 when nobody seemed bothered about this horrifying and shameful reality of Delhi and of Indian society. The story was indeed praised by some, but most sniggered at the decision of the editorial team to put this out as a cover story. While pursuing this story in 2008, this correspondent had met about two dozen families whose children had gone missing. In almost all cases, it was a familiar tale of police apathy, arrogance and cussedness. “A police officer asked for a bribe of Rs 3,000 to register an FIR and get a missing child ad printed in newspapers from me,” says Azhar, a resident of Jahangirpuri, C Block whose daughter Atika has been missing for more than five years. In almost all cases, the cops simply refused to register an FIR. In any case, the entire media was so engrossed with the murder of the upper middle class girl Arushi Talwar that nobody seemed to have any time for the missing children of the slum dwellers of Delhi.
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