Children of a lesser God

KOLKATA: During Durga Puja, desperate announcements for lost children at pandals are common.
But many of these children are deliberately abandoned by their guardians, mostly people who cannot make two ends meet.
The city police and NGOs working with children estimate that about 20 per cent of the children lost at Puja pandals are not claimed.
They are usually put into government-run homes.In genuine cases, the children, mostly from rural areas, are later traced by their parents. The rest stay back at these homes.
Dipankar Sen of the Ekdalia Puja committee, one of most popular puja pandals in south Kolkata, said, “We handle about 25 cases daily of children getting lost at our pandal. Most of them are between the ages of two and 15.
“They are kept at the booth for about four hours and then handed over to the police.� The control room at Lalbazar is notified and officers wait for reports of the missing child being filed at any police station. “We are also in touch with the districts to find out if any missing report has been filed,� a senior police officer said.
This often means that a child has to wait for hours at the booth. This year, the Organisation for Friends, Energies and Resources (OFFER), an NGO, is talking to Puja committees and the police to bring lost children to a “child-ambient� surrounding.
“We will have four ambulances with child counsellors to help ease the child’s trauma,� said OFFER secretary Kallol Ghosh.
The children will then be taken to Aponghor, a rehabilitation home for street and destitute children, where they will be kept till claimed.
Ghosh added, “We will take responsibility for the child if he or she is not taken by guardians.�