10 Birhor Children Rescued from Gaya After Going Missing from Koderma

Koderma/Ranchi: Ten Birhor kids from Gadiyai hamlet in Koderma district, who had gone missing after attending a feast at Parsabad around a week ago, were rescued from Gaya (Gayaji) in Bihar on Saturday. A team from Koderma brought back the kids to the state after completing the formalities. SP Anudeep Singh said the children wandered off, boarded the train at Parsabad, and were unable to get off at Yadudih station, which is near their hamlet.

Birhors fall under the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) and are among Jharkhand’s most vulnerable population. In Koderma, the Birhor community has a population of approximately 1,900 members across 21 villages.


On Friday, the administration went into a tizzy after their parents lodged a complaint with the Jainagar police station about the missing kids. Koderma SP Anudeep Singh formed multiple special investigation teams to trace them. Union minister for women and child development and Koderma MP Annapurna Devi had called for urgent action. The Koderma police had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for any information leading to their whereabouts.

The children had gone with their family members to attend a feast at Parsabad, around 3km away from their settlement. While the adults returned home following the event, the children did not. Initially, the families believed that the youngsters might have stayed back with their relatives or were playing nearby, but as days passed, panic gripped the hamlet as there were no signs of the children.

After a couple of days, when Rajendra Prasad Yadav, the head of Berogai panchayat, learnt about the case from their parents, he alerted the local block development office and the police. However, the distraught parents managed to file a complaint with the police on Friday.

The rescue of the children was the result of a chance breakthrough involving the Gaya Child Helpline. While the children were rescued by locals and police on February 2, the language barrier prevented them from communicating their details, including names or home addresses, to the officials in Bihar.

The Gaya Child Welfare Committee (CWC) had placed the children in various protective shelters across Gaya, Nawada, and Aurangabad. The deadlock was broken when Amit Pathak, the district coordinator of Childline in Gaya, spotted news reports regarding the missing children from Koderma and alerted the Jainagar police station on Saturday.

Human rights activist Onkar Vishwakarma on Saturday lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), accusing police of delayed action in the 10 missing kids case. Talking to STOI over the phone, he said, “The Koderma police, despite being apprised earlier didn't react or take any initiative. The local mukhiya had approached the police station with the info, but they didn't take it seriously. Only on Friday, an FIR was filed after parents turned up at the station, and the matter reached higher-ups in the administration. Hence, I have requested the NHRC for action against erring cops.”