Assam: Trapped girl meets her parents after 15 years in Sootea

JAMUGURIHAT: Legal provisions and sections have been framed for the elimination of child labour in India. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (61 of 1986) is one among such provisions for checking child labour in India. Similarly, CPCR Act, 2005 (Commission for Protection of Child Rights) has been formed to protect the child rights. Besides June 12 has been observed as The World Day Against Child Labour globally to mitigate the global issue of child labour. And there are thousands of government and non-government organizations, ministries working round the clock to address such burning issues. But in reality, the human value and dignity of the poor and downtrodden ill-fated child labourers have been exploited by so-called educated and rich people on this earth. The poor but helpless children have been gifted with the burden of bricks, sand, soil, washing clothes etc. in place of a bag full of books, education.

A similar incident had happened in 2008 with Saraswati Khediya, a trapped girl of Khediya Basti, in the northern part of Sootea. Saraswati, daughter of Bandhan Khediya and Phuleswari Khediya was handed over to an Arunachali Couple in 2008 as a child labour. The poor parents have handed over their daughter due to the poor economic condition of the family. The Arunachali family identified themselves as residents of Seijusa of Pakke Kessang district of Arunachal Pradesh which shares a boundary with Jamugurihat. After 2008, the parents of Saraswati tried to visit their daughter at Seijusa but they couldn’t meet her due to the fake address. Actually, Saraswati was taken to Hapoli, Ziro of Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh and trapped her as a child labour. She had no communication with her parents and family members since 2008.

But, interestingly, Saraswati made contact with her sister through facebook days back who also lived in Itanagar as a maid. She informed her about her poor life and made a humble appeal to her sister to rescue her from the inhumane clutches of the family. Similarly, Saraswati’s sister made a contact with One Stop, a Lower Subansiri based NGO. The members of the NGO rescued Saraswati from her suffering life, evacuated her from the trapped house and dropped her at Sootea police station on Friday night and handed over Saraswati to her parents. She became emotional after meeting her family after a gap of 15 years. She has turned 23 at present. She attained no formal education till the date. She has no personal identity cards such as PAN card, Voter’s ID, Aadhaar card etc. to prove her identity at present. Some local youths have assured that they will extend helping hands to Saraswati for the arrangements of her personal documents.

Now, the question arises whether the family who looted her childhood will be brought behind the bar? Whether the law will provide exemplary punishment for such people? Can Saraswati get formal education now? This is one of the realistic pictures of poor and downtrodden children of our nation.

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