The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : That long, hard way home

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Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

That long, hard way home

Staff Reporter

23 children attend De-addiction and Home Placement camp
The children ran away from home and were addicted to some substance

Bangalore: After a month-long de-addiction camp in Kuladanahalli in Malur taluk, 23 children were reunited with their families at the closing ceremony of the camp at the Department of Women and Child Welfare on Monday. Titled “De-addiction and Home Placement,” the camp was jointly organised by the Child Welfare Committee and the Government Boys’ Home in association with Sathi, a non-governmental organisation involved with the home placement of street children.

The camp brought together children who had mostly run away from home and had been addicted to some substance ranging from tobacco to erasing solution, with a few exceptions. These children are from all over Karnataka, from places such as Birur, Wadi, Hubli, Tiptur and Betagiri among others. With filled stomachs at the camp, they were responsive to the talks given to them about the downside of their addiction and the importance of staying at home. While 16 families were present at the closing ceremony, the rest would be seeing their children over the next few days.

However, Sathi has identified a few families as “not good” or unfit for the children’s upbringing. Those and the set of orphaned children will be placed in Sathi’s shelter for a while before any further action is taken.

Present at the closing ceremony and addressing the parents and the children was Shekar P. Sheshadri, Head of the Department of Psychiatric Social Work, who emphasised the need of the parents to treat their children well now that they were back home.

Among the speakers was 15-year-old Yogesh who ran away from home in February. His seven-month stint as child labourer for a shipping company took him from Pune to Bombay to Goa and Sri Lanka. Finally back with his family and little brother, he says he was brought here after volunteers found him at the Yeshwantpur Railway Station working as a porter. He is among the 25 children that were initially brought to the camp, from which one had escaped.

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Karnataka