The hugs were tight and tears were uncontrollable as 21 missing and runaway children were reunited with their families at a programme at the State Home for Boys on Hosur Road on Thursday.
The boys had been given a rose each and were asked to give it to their parents and sit beside them. However, on seeing their parents, the boys grew extremely emotional, held their parents’ hands and cried profusely.
Some of the boys were anxious on how to face their parents as they were meeting them after several months.
While 14-year-old Manu had run away from his home in Davangere for the 21st time as he was beaten up by his father for stealing, 12-year-old Suhel had run away as he did not want to study, and 15-year-old Ganesh had run away from his home in Chikkamagaluru as his father, an alcoholic, would beat him often.
Many of them came to Bengaluru in search of work or to beg. Some of them have become addicted to alcohol, smoking or whitener owing to peer pressure, according to counsellors .
This is the third time 12-year-old Deepak had run away from his K.R. Puram home. His mother, Mahalakshmi, could not stop crying when she saw him, and he vowed never to leave home again.
Ms. Mahalakshmi, a single parent, said Deepak would leave home in search of his father. “I have another child with disability and Deepak is my only ray of hope and support. I toil hard day and night to fund his education,” she said. Deepak interrupted her and said, “I will never leave you again amma . I thought of you so many times in these six months.”
He promised to go to school and be a “good” boy.
Attempts
As many of these boys had run away from their homes multiple times, some parents had stopped making attempts to search them. “Where will he go? We knew he will come back home,” said Rizwana, mother of a 12-year-old who had run away from his Shivajinagar home after his father beat him up. .
In the end, only five boys were left behind and they were sitting in a corner holding on to their roses.
Fourteen-year-old Jaison, who had run away from West Bengal after his uncle forced him to work, was among them.
Function
He said, “They told us there would be a big function and they would let us go home. But my parents have not come.”
Members of SATHI, an NGO which facilitated the reunion of the children with their families, said Jaison would be sent to a home in West Bengal from where his parents would take him home.
