KALIMPONG CHILD RESCUED FROM SHIMLA

By Nisha Chettri (TNI Kalimpong) ~ Edited By T. Deepika (TNI Siliguri)

Webdesk, TNI Kalimpong, 23rd August, 2015: A 15-year-old child was rescued from Himachal Pradesh and brought to Kalimpong today. The child was saved with the efforts of the Bal Suraksha Abhiyan with the help of Child Welfare Committee, Shimla and Child Welfare Committee, Darjeeling. Bal Suraksha Abhiyan (BSA) received a mail from the Child Welfare Committee, (CWC) Shimla on 23rd July which interpreted that Shimla police found a wandering child searching for a bus to Darjeeling. Reacting to the mail, Tej Thapa, the Child Rescue Officer of BSA left for Shimla on 17th August, 2015.  According to the conversation the team had with the child, it was found that he was sent to a monastery in Darjeeling by his family one and a half years ago but the story took a turn when the monk administration sent the child to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh without the consent of his parents.  During the child’s stay at the monastery in Himachal, he was tortured by the senior monks for speaking in Nepali. Incapable of tolerating more tortures, the child fled from the monastery and landed up in Shimla. He was found wandering in the town, searching for a bus to Darjeeling.The Child Welfare Committee found and sheltered the child in Bal Ashram in Shimla and informed BSA about it. ‘After talking to CWC, I had a talk with the child and he gave me the details of his parents’ said Thapa, the child rescue officer adding that he got an authentication letter from CWC Darjeeling and brought the child back. The investigation is in the preliminary stage as there is no FIR lodged by anyone; ironically the monastery in Himachal too did not file a missing diary in the local police station after the child went missing. Meanwhile, with the order of the Child Welfare Committee (Darjeeling) the child sheltered in children home under BSA temporarily and will be rehabilitated at his home soon, informs Thapa.