IMPHAL, December 14: The District Child Protection Unit, Chandel District today re-united a nine-year old boy, taken away from his parents along with his elder brother six years ago on the promise of better education, with his parents.
It is learnt that the elder brother came home earlier in July this year.
Nine-year old John (name changed) was brought back to Imphal from Jharkhand today and handed over to his father during a simple ceremony in Imphal West today.
Much to the dismay of the father, his young son failed to recognise him.
The father, subsequently, broke down on seeing his son’s reaction.
According to John’s father who is a farmer by profession, the family was having a hard time as he has seven children, when a missionary woman known as Aunty Tabi approached him with a proposal of better education for his children.
He said without even properly understanding the gravity of the situation, the family agreed to send their two sons John three years old and Toby (name changed) eight years old in the hope of better education for them.
Due to his poverty and lack of education, he had lost contact with the boys for the last six years, he said.
All he could do was miss his two boys and hope that they are doing well.
According to Toby who is now 14-year-old, initially they were treated nicely but later they were ill treated and subjected to do odd jobs. They were not provided enough food to eat and used them more in doing domestic works, said James.
Unable to bear the ill treatment James ran away from the school in July 2015, he said.
Subsequently, the issue came to the notice of the District Child Protection Unit, Chandel district and the officials of the unit namely DCPO Lourembam Victor Singh and Protection Officer Ph Devbrata Sharma, initiated the lengthy process of bringing back Toby’s younger brother.
It is learnt that the boys were at a school in Jharkhand called the New Life Foundation, as is supported by a letter of the manager of the school identified as Peter Thapa written to the chairperson Child Welfare Committee, Dumka .
In his letter, Peter had said that a 9 year old boy was brought to them by one Aunty Tabi in the year 2009. Since then the boy was staying and studying at their school.
When this reporter tried speaking with John, not much information could be retrieved from him as he was too young to understand the situation he was in.
The boys can converse in English and Hindi however they have forgotten their mother tongue.
When this reporter asked Toby where does he prefer to stay at home or the boarding school at Jharkhand, he answered home straight away.
Unfortunately, the elder brother ever since his return home is unable to attend any school and instead he is lending a helping hand to his father in the field.
He said the nearest school from their home is Tengnoupal High School which is about 6 to 7 kilometres far.
Although the High School has got handful of teachers, it is learnt that the teachers are not regular and the school has been lying more in a defunct state.
Speaking to this reporter, Chandel District Child Protection Officer Lourembam Victor Singh said that the 9-year-old boy was taken away from his family on the pretext of providing better education when he was only three years old.
Now after six complete years we come to know of this story and finally we have manage to bring the boy back home from Jharkhand, he said.
As the boy had been separated from his parents at a tender age he is now facing identity crisis, he continued.
Although the boys have been re-united with their family the big challenge before us is how to provide them with better education and how to make them a productive member of the society, said the CPO.
We will provide all the assistance possible from the Social Welfare Department side under various schemes available, he said.
He also appealed to the parents not to easily get carried away with the false promises of providing better education and better clothing and to be more careful in the future.