Manipur Bir Tikendrajit House in total disarray
NEW DELHI, May 19 : A rudderless ship, that is what Manipur Bir Tikendraji House at Chanakyapuri, South Delhi has been reduced to with the staff running around trying to keep the House in order. When The Sangai Express visited the State house, there .....
Incentives for Everesters
IMPHAL, May 19: The State Government will consider incentives that may be given to the five Manipuri mountaineers who have successfully scaled the world’s highest peak Mt Everest, informed the Chief Minister while talking with The Sangai Express. The.....
Governor, CM, Dy CM congratulate So far, six from State have scaled Everest
IMPHAL, May 19: Governor Gurbachan Jagat, Chief Minister O Ibobi and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam have congratulated the team of the 1st North East Mt Everest Expedition 2013 on summiting the highest peak of the world. Gurbachan Jagat said that the.....
Cleanliness drive at Ima Keithel
IMPHAL, May 18: With an objective to keep Ima Keithel neat and clean, Blooming Manipur, Kangla (Facebook Group), Manipur Times, Manipur Photography Club, European Manipuri Asso-ciation (EMA) and Manipur Cycle Club jointly organised a cleanliness drive at .....
KNF celebrates raising day
IMPHAL, May 19: The Kuki National Front (KNF) celebrated its 26th raising day at Camp Ebenezer, Sadar Hills yesterday with more than 200 cadres and leaders. The raising day celebration started with a mass fasting prayer. Addressing the gathering KNF p.....
AIDS Candle Light Memorial Day Observed Solemnly NGOs urge for amended AIDS policy
IMPHAL, May 19 : While observing the International AIDS Candle Light Memorial Day at JN Dance Academy today, 16 NGOs have urged the authorities to implement an amended Manipur State AIDS policy within three months. Generally, International AIDS Candle.....
Rongali Bihu
IMPHAL, May 19:The Asom Samaj Manipur hosted Rongali Bihu celebration at Devalaya Mandir, Kalibari (Thangal bazar) today with Education Minister M Okendro Singh gracing the celebration as the chief guest. While Okendro conveyed warm wishes to the Assam.....
To check frauds and money swindling Economic offence wing set up
IMPHAL, May 19: With the primary objective of checking the practice of swindling money from the public by non-banking financial companies (NBFC), an Economic Offence Wing has been set up in Manipur Police Department. The Economic Offence Wing was set .....
Guardians' body takes up street vendors' cause
IMPHAL, May 19: Noting that upper floors of the three market complexes at Khwairamband keithel are yet to be occupied, All Manipur Students' Guardians' Organisation has proposed that the Government of Manipur provide trading slots to women street vendors .....
DU admissions
IMPHAL, May 18 : Delhi University has announced the dates for undergraduate admissions for the academic session 2013-2014. It will commence on June 5 and continue till June 19, said a press release issued by Naga Students’ Union, Delhi. Unlike las.....
Ex-rebels are not untouchables : Dy CM
IMPHAL, May 19: Stating that the State Government has initiated several measures to bring insurgents on the path of peace, Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam has called upon all the people not to view or treat former rebels who have laid down arms and retu.....
UG cadres surrender
IMPHAL, May 19: Security forces of Red Shield Division recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition buried under ground in 2007 by a cadre of UPPK at the foothills of Thangjing ridge, said a PIB (DW) release that identified the UG cadre as SS Capt Moiran.....
ZU concerned
IMPHAL, May 19:Zeliangrong Union (Assam, Manipur, Nagaland) has expressed concern over the death of an NSCN (IM) cadre in a reported gunfight with ZUF cadres yesterday. In a press release, ZU (AMN) said that it has always been working for maintaining p.....
Tousem body
IMPHAL, May 19:Development Committee Tousem Block 52-Tamei AC has drawn the attention of Chief Minister O Ibobi regarding bad road conditions of the Sub-Division. In a press release, the committee said that the Chief Minister had promised during his vi.....
Hurt in mishap
IMPHAL, May 19:Three youngsters, who were riding a brand new Yamaha FZ motorcycle, met with an accident in front of Mantripukhri headquarters of 69 Bn CRPF this evening. According to an informed source, the biker trio hit the road median and rolled sev.....
MLA inspects
IMPHAL, May 19:Ahead of the monsoon season, Yaiskul AC MLA E Chand today conducted a field inspection of the vulnerable sections of Imphal river bank within Yaiskul Assembly segment together with IFC officials. Observing that many excavations dug up fo.....
Hate the person who breaks traffic rules
If you think no one is watching then you are mistaken! But unfortunately, I am not a traffic cop who will jump in front and enforce you fine for breaking the traffic rule. It is the general Indian nature of carelessness and interpretation of pampered free.....
Traditional healing methods with special reference to Manipur
By Dr K Paochunbou Every ethnic community in Manipur has well-established knowledge, skills, beliefs and practices relating to promotion of positive health and avoidance of sickness even before the hospital oriented system of medicine. In an old civiliza.....
Mis-selling Insurance
By Dipankar Jakharia Not a single week goes by when I am not asked by my readers about an ULIP policy they have invested and now feels as if they have been ripped-off by it. I have written many a times before and ready to write many a time in future abou.....
World Migratory Bird Day 2013
Large scale climatic changes, as have been experienced in the past, are expected to have an effect on the timing of migration. Studies have shown a variety of effects including timing changes in migration, breeding as well as population variations due to .....
Sunday Sentiments
By : Urmila Chanam
O sweet child of mine
When Shekhar, 12, a child on the street was found in Bangalore railway station three months ago by BOSCO he told them he wanted to go find his family. He got lost when he was just 5 in the same railway station. On that fateful day his parents had been with him, they had come all the way from his village in Shimoga district of Karnataka to go to another place beyond Bangalore to attend a family wedding. They had told Shekhar to sit in the compartment while they got down to get some eatables. The train had started; he still recalls standing at the door of the train and looking out for his parents. In the last moment out of fear of never finding them if he continued sitting in the train Shekhar had plunged from a running train. He had waited for his parents on the platform. He still does.
When BOSCO found him, he told what little he knew about his village and also that he had an elder brother who worked in Pandavapura near Mandiya district. In just 24 hours the team reached his parents only to be told that Shekhar hadn’t got lost as he believed, he had been deserted!!! They didn’t want him then, they didn’t want him now. Think about the disillusionment of the boy. All this time he thought he had a family who loved him and could be out there looking for him, only to learn that all the pining all these years had only been his. Produced in front of the Child Welfare Committee under the Ministry of Women and Child Development on the failure to reunite Shekhar to his family, it was decided that he will be categorized as a street child from now on, children who have no family of their own, and will be assigned to the care of the State Children’s Home, the Bala Kana Bala Mandira till the time he finishes school and can stand on his own feet.
This is the story of those small people on the street you see, dirty, unkempt, unhealthy, with hollowness in their eyes you can’t quiet understand. On conversation with the grass root workers who actually rescue and rehabilitate them, I learn that these children are deserted by parents and families at birth or later due to monetary constraints or gender discrimination; or they are runaways who fled from a home where there was violence against the mother due to drunkenness of the father, remarriage of the mother to the man she now lived with or other domestic strife. A sense of guilt or perhaps the need to escape from the conditions at home sometimes lead children to leave their home. Deserted or run away, both ways, life for these children is worse on the streets than it would have been with their parents.
No matter what the reason is behind their landing in such a situation, I just wonder how it would be for a mother to learn of her child going about in the traffic, in the scorching heat of the after noon sun, empty stomach, without water and exposed to danger. And I’d choose to die before I see that day. In this light I deem these children so very unfortunate. What is more unfortunate than not have a guardian.
I think the government of India should innovate and come up with provisions for poor people who are unable to look after their children. In an advanced country like UK, the state takes the custody of a child temporarily if the parents are unable to look after the health of the child. There are care centers for these children where their nutrition is ensured. The parents get the custody of the child after they prove or commit to look after their children. For a country that has looked into such minute aspects of child care, can you think about what provisions it must have to cater to other aspects of a child’ welfare. I think the government of India seriously needs ideas and I urge all the NGOs and CBOs working in this area to strengthen their advocacy programs just to ensure the welfare of children- there should have been no need to desert children if there had been a government program to support these families; these children wouldn’t have to flee from their homes.
It’s difficult to identify with dirty looking children, unknown to you and with whom you just cannot relate so it’s understandable when you don’t really feel for them let alone contribute your empathy to their cause. Trust me, I know how it is. But if you are a mom, and you have a 5 year old son who is the centre of your universe for just a moment think due to a twist of faith, he was to get lost one day and no amount of search yields you information about his whereabouts, how will each night be, how will each meal time be, how will each bed time be when you will wonder if your son has had a mouthful to eat, if your son has a shelter, if his small body has a blanket to protect him from the cold and you shudder to think about the big bad world out there.
I wish each mother came forward to support this cause to rehabilitate children on the street, I wish they marched along with organizations like BOSCO, APSA, ECHO, REDS, Paraspara and others, to help provide for them for a better education and other needs. I wish we begin to see in these nameless faces our own children. I wish we did our part to help these motherless children to go on ahead and one day equipped with education become parents themselves and find the joy of a family once again.
I thank BOSCO Mane Bangalore to have shown me this world. I wish them all the luck and support in their mission to rescue street children and reunite them to their families.
The writer works in an IT Consultancy in Bangalore as a HR Manager and she can be reached at urmila.chanam@gmail.com
