14 ‘misled’ absconding tribal children reunited with parents
COIMBATORE, June 2: Fourteen tribal children, who had deserted their
homes lured by employment, housing and shelter, after a week-long
suffering at Valparai tea estate, were re-united with their parents
yesterday, thanks to the initiative of a city-based NGO ‘Donbosco Anbu
Illam’.Talking to UNI here, Illam Director John Dharman said 14 tribal
children of Karikkiyur near Kothagiri, all aged between 12 to 14
years, had left on May 18 with a supervisor, who promised them Rs 80
as wages per day besides food and comfortable housing.
The Supervisor, Manikandan (20), had also extracted a promise that
they would not inform their parents before taking them to Valparai,
where they were put up in a dilapidated house, frequented by rats and
leech.
To ward off the chilly weather, they were given nothing but gunny
bags. For a square meal they were forced to work for more than ten
hours a day.
After a week, when the children asked Manikandan for their salary they
were told that their salary, fixed at Rs 40 per day, had been adjusted
against tempo charges for bringing them from Kothagiri to Valparai.
Left with no money, they decided to walk towards their native
Karikkiyur, but got separated on May 25.
Meanwhile, the worried parents, searching for their children at
Mettupalayam, Kothagiri and Ooty informed the Don Bosco community
college for tribals in Kothagiri.
On May 26, police arrested three roaming children and kept them in a
city-based juvenile home. An official of the child helpline wing of
Don Bosco in Karikkiyur on coming to know about the three children
informed their Kothagiri college. The parents came to the juvenile
home yesterday and collected their children.
In the meantime, around 11 children managed to reach home safely.