Eighty-six schoolchildren who ran away from home were rescued by BOSCO, a city-based child helpline this month. Most of these children said they couldn’t withstand the pressure from school and scolding from parents to study, and hence ran away from home.
While almost all the children are from Bangalore, the rest of them are from neighbouring towns and villages. They were all rescued from Kempe Gowda bus-stand and the Bangalore city railway station.
Bangalore city has recorded the highest number of runaway schoolchildren this month. Seventy-one of the 86 children rescued were counselled along with their family members. “During the counselling it was found that the children studying in English medium schools were finding it difficult to cope with Mathematics and Science,” said Executive Director of BOSCO Fr. P.S. George.
The maximum runaways were students studying 9th and 10th standard. While some of them were facing difficulties in their studies, others were influenced by their peers to give up studies and look for easy ways of living.
The BOSCO childline counselled quite a few teachers over the phone and discussed ways to improve their performance in classes.
Child Welfare Committee Chairperson Meena Jain said apart from academic pressure there could be other reasons that made the children run away from home.
