Recently a NGO,Balprafulatta, assisted with local police and few journalists from some regional paper and tv channel, raided my restaurant looking for child labor, under suspicion they picked up MIZAAN and put him in the van, as I was not in the restaurant and Mizaan didnot know hindi, nobody could understand what was going on. Dilip, my cashier also accompanied him to MIDC police station.
When employed Mizaan had given few documents alongwith his bio data, his age and address proof. These documents were ration card and voting id card both issued by the govt. of West Bengal and as per these documents his age was 19yrs. Alongwith these documents and his kin Qasim Ali, also employed with me, we reached police station.
I showed the papers to the duty officer, girls from NGO, one of whom certainly looked younger than Mizaan, and the journalists. They all agreed that getting Mizaan was a mistake and I was assured that he would be freed once the prodedures were completed. After a while there was a complete shift and the officer on duty refused to accept the documents as they were in Bangla and none of them could read bangla, Qasim did read it but that was not sufficient as the officers on duty didn't understand Bangla and all my efforts of showing them the original voting id card and arguments that it had the seal of Indian Govt. were wasted. Once the boys were brought to the police station the NGO expressed its inability to help as they were in police custody and police were apprehensive because if released the press would accuse them of corruption.
In the evening all the boys alongwith Mizaan were transferred to Children Remand Home at Dongri and I was assured that next day Mizaan and another boy, who had come to give tiffin to his father when raided, would get released from there.
I reached Dongri the next day and witnessed a very sorry state of affairs inside the remand home. All the juvenille boys n girls brought from mumbai are kept inside this remand home as prisoners and in very inhumane conditions. Mizaan complaint that he was assaulted by warden with a plastic pipe. I met the suprintendent of the remand home and was told that only the Child Welfare Board had the power to release, in the evening I met an official of Child Welfare Board and briefed him of his case, who got Mizaan summoned before him, he too was convinced that getting Mizaan was a mistake, but he also told me that Mizaan will have to undergo a medical checkup and if he is found to be over 18yrs he would be released.
This entire procedure took 9 days and at last I procured a medical certificate from police hospital and got him freed. Taking Mizaan for his medical examination to procuring the medical certificate was an experience which only chosen and blessed get and I consider myself to be one. Only the brave and strong can stand up to such situations and I did it successfully.
Mizaan, Qasim and Saiful came to mumbai from West Benagal in search of employment as there was no money, no food, no shelter for them in their home town and each one of them had a family to support or they were burden on someone else back home.
Working in my restaurant Mizaan , Qasim and Saiful get free accomodation, four meals everyday, uniform laundered every alternate day and they earn Rs.2800/ wages per month. Most of this money they send home for other family members.
In Children Remand Home I noticed that all the children brought were from this strata of society who have no one to look after them and they have no other choice but to look after their own self which in law book is a crime and the remedy provided to them is more hardship and imprisonment.
Mizaan is amongst those who remain hungry for most of his life, has never been to any school, starts working at a very tender age, to manage a meal for himself and his family, he does all this not out of choice but because there is no other option available to him.
There are innumerable Mizaans in our country, in rural India, who start working at a very early age either they plough farms, they graze cattle or they help their families in their shop or which ever employment they are in , there is no other world and law prohibits them to survive the way they do. Working for them is not permitted then what do they do? Someone please ask Mizaan whether he has any other way to survive.
Am sure they too must have created a surreal world but there is no path for them to reach there. This is the only way they grow up and create their destiny. The way to their destiny is thru hardship, this is life for them and this is one journey they have to complete in whichever form it comes to them.
I consider Mizaan to be a real hero he lives a life about which thinking we dread, the very thought of this life gives us goose pimples. There are hundreds of Mizaans languishing in Remand Homes living a life which they haven't chosen but are forced into.
There are hundreds of such NGOs existing and being registered who imprison Mizaan and in return get governmental aid.
While Mizaan is taken to Remand Home who takes care of his family about whose condition nobody knows? Are the NGOs doing their job completely and correctly?
They say all is well that ends well, it ended well and left me fulfilled.
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1 comment:
superb !
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