The Shanghumughom beach on Sunday evening was drowned out in a cacophony. In addition to loud talks of holidaymakers and incessant shouting by wayside vendors, there were two marketing campaigns, three singers belting out old numbers, and two awareness campaigns.
But one voice rang loud and clear in this din, that of a group of students and little children who had gathered to remember the lakhs of children who have gone missing worldwide. The programme, organised jointly by the Childline Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala Child Rights Observatory to coincide with International Missing Children’s Day that falls on May 25, did attract some attention from the crowd.
The preparations for the programme started right from the morning with a group of students from the College of Fine Arts Kerala coming together to create a sand sculpture, depicting a chained woman and children.
“Thousands of children go missing from different parts of the world every year. Last month, 300 schoolgirls were abducted from Nigeria by the militant group Boko Haram and this week, we heard the news of a father selling off his children for Rs.3 lakh here in Kerala.
The reasons for missing children are numerous, ranging from kidnapping to issues at home. They end up with anti-social groups involved in trafficking, labour, and sexual abuse. The awareness campaign is aimed at promoting the reporting of these cases and to push for better action on missing cases,” M. Maneesh, State coordinator of the Kerala Child Rights Observatory, said.
Joining the Childline volunteers in the campaign was a group of 18 students from the Assumption School of Social Work in Changanassery. They performed a short play, ‘Theevandi Pole’ (Like a Train).
They plan to perform the play on board Parasuram Express on Monday.
