Manish kumar
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: Rehman Mortaza (name changed), a 13-year-old who migrated to India from Bangladesh nine months ago, is anxious to go home. However, continuous attempts to reunite him with his family have proved futile.
Mortaza, for whom a child-care centre in Khurda has become a second home, was spotted on the national highway in the district in July. The boy, who had left home after a family brawl, was then handed over to the Asha Kiran Home July 22 by the child welfare committee.
“Around nine months ago, after a brawl with my mother, I boarded a truck that was coming from Bangladesh to India and landed in Kolkata. I then took a train to Bhubaneswar. Now I anxiously want to go home,” Mortaza told Orissa POST.
However, the authorities are allegedly not helping the boy go back to his village in Gopalganj district of Bangladesh. Hochiminh Sastri, the secretary of the child care unit, claims he has repeatedly written to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the home ministry, the ministry of external affairs, the Bangladesh high commission and some NGOs based in Bangladesh but has received little help in paving the way for Mortaza’s repatriation.
Sastri fears that the child may face harassment in future if the government does not help him go home and he turns an adult while he is here. “Mortaza is safe till he becomes an adult. If the government does not come to aid the child and he turns adult in India he is likely to face harassment from security agencies and authorities here. We desperately want the government to intervene and assist in his repatriation,” said Sastri.
Orissa POST has learnt that Sastri’s communication with the PMO seemed to have prompted the Centre to take measures for repatriation of the child by involving the Orissa government.
The Union ministry of women and child welfare wrote to the state child and welfare department secretary March 23 to look into the matter and give an action taken report to the Union home ministry and the PMO so that something can be done in this regard. The Khurda collector has also been asked to enquire into the matter and take suitable action.
