Raipur: A 17-year-old Chhattisgarh tribal girl who was allegedly trafficked at the age of ten from Surguja district to Delhi has finally found her way back home after she was rescued with efforts of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and an NGO, My Home India, on Thursday.
Social media too played a crucial role in tracing girl’s parents when NCPCR posted about her on Facebook seeking help for where about of her parents.
She was found in a poor condition and homeless at Anand Vihar railway station clueless about where to go, after which she was shifted to a shelter home at New Delhi with the help of police.
Talking to Times of India, NCPCR member Yashwant Jain in Delhi said, “The minor girl has found her home and family after seven long years and was working as domestic slave at households. She was taken to shelter home three months back. While she couldn’t recollect the name of her village Hardijharia at Sitapur in Surguja, the NGO My Home India representative contacted me for assistance.”
Jain then tried to trace girl’s parents but didn’t receive any concrete information till he posted it on Facebook. “I sought for help from local friends in Chhattisgarh about the girl and her untraceable parents. With the help of my three friends who went in the remote village of Surguja region, we succeeded in finding the parents.”
He added that NCPCR has written to district administration to make arrangements to her parents’ travel and assist them to return home safely. Delhi co-ordinator Shakti Singh of My Home India told TOI over phone that the NGO has helped 1200 children stuck at shelter homes reach their native places in past three years.
“We were contacted by Sanskar Ashram to inform about the girl when we approached her to counsel and find out her background. She didn’t remember the name of her village as it had been seven years she had left the place and was never in touch with the family. The girl was brought to Delhi by someone local from her village on pretext of getting her a job with attractive payment but like others, she too was pushed into domestic slavery,” Singh said.
He added that the girl wasn’t in position to narrate where and for whom she worked in Delhi but somehow she managed to escape from the clutches of agents and went to railway station to return home. Totally disoriented and clueless about the train and routes, she was spotted by police and shifted to shelter home.
Now, her parents who have recognized her and vice-versa through pictures will travel to Delhi on Monday and after she’s produced before magistrate, Child Welfare Committee, she will be allowed to return home.
According to information, the ministry of women and child development had written to Chhattisgarh government in January stating that nearly 141 runaway and missing children were languishing at shelter homes of several states. In January 2015, Ghaziabad police had for the first time traced over 3000 missing and runaway children from several care homes when many kids from Chhattisgarh were also found.