Pain of separation ends for Hajipur boy

Dharmender has changed a lot. From his figure to the way he speaks Bihari Hindi, 15 months’ separation from the family has changed this 15-year-old-boy from Hajipur, Vaishali district, who reached Balaramapuram 15 months ago after venturing to the southern state in search of a job.

 For most part of his stay here, he remained docile and introvert. But when he saw his father, he shed his inhibitions and hugged him. The re-union of father and son at Don Bosco Nivas here, where the boy was accommodated, brought tears in the eyes of other inmates and officials of the Child Line who had assembled to witness the event.   Dharmender had left Hajipur 15 months back for Tirupur in pursuit of a job. But somehow he lost track and reached Balaramapuram. The public spotted the boy wandering near the railway track and he was handed over to the police who in turn handed him over to the Child Line workers.

 Since then, he had been living with the inmates of Don Bosco Nivas. With sparse information provided by the boy, the Child Line contacted the Vaishali branch of the Child Line. On further investigation, the Child Line workers succeeded in identifying the boy’s parents, Visweshar Ram and Lalthi Devi, almost three months back.

 But the financial constraints of the peasant family delayed the visit of the relatives to the city. Finally, they arrived on Saturday to take the boy back. Dharmender was elated on seeing his father and said that he wanted to go back to his village at the earliest.

 ‘’Mujhe ghar jaana hey, Maa ko dekhna hey,’’ he told his father. Even the pain of losing his friends at Don Bosco Nivas does not bother him from returning to Vaishali. ‘’I have a lot of friends here. But I want to return soon,’’ he seemed anxious for Monday’s train to return to Bihar.

The reason of the journey of the boy to the southern state appears confusing as the Child Line workers maintained that it was a case of trafficking of children for labour. But Praveen Kumar, team member of Vaishali branch of Child Line who accompanied the relatives of the boy, dismissed the allegation and said that the child was on his way to Tirupur to visit his elder brother when he went missing.

 Dharmender, his father and a Vaisali Child Line member will return to Bihar on Monday morning. The expenses of the journey will be sponsored by Child Line workers.