Runaway Nepal cousins sent home after 3 months

Teens fled as their mothers used to beat them up

It took over three months to complete the paperwork, and transporatation by almost all means — train, bus, autorickshaw, boat and even on foot — to reunite two cousins from Nepal with their families across the border.

Fourteen-year-old Sariful Safi and Lal Bahadur, 13, are residents of Bharariya village in Nepal’s Dhanusa district. They had run away from home and landed up in the Capital over three months ago.

They said their mothers used to beat them up so they decided to run away and came to Delhi via Bihar.

NGO finds them

In June, a member of a child rights group — Prayas Childline (1098) — found the two children at New Delhi Railway Station. Both looked scared and told the member that they both had run away from their homes.

Sariful told the member that his uncle lives in Delhi, but he did not know the address. Both the children expressed the desire to go back home.

Produced before CWC

Prayas Childline produced them before the Child Welfare Committee, Sewa Kutir. The CWC passed an order to place them at Prayas Children Home for boys in north Delhi’s Jahangirpuri.

“During the counselling session Sariful told that his father works in Saudi Arabia and Lal said his father is a farmer in his native village in Nepal,” said a member, Prayas.

Based on the counselling report, the CWC ordered the NGO to restore them to their respective families. The child rights group verified the address with the help of their members at Darbhanga in Bihar.

“On September 13, at around 8.30 pm two member of Prayas and the kids left for Darbhanga from New Delhi Railway Station. From Jayanagar in Bihar they took a bus to reach Dhanusa in Nepal,” Mohd Hussain, who accompanied the kids told Deccan Herald.

They then travelled by autorickshaw, boat and even on foot to reach the home of the boys in Bharariya village.

“On Monday, at around 7.30 am the children were restored to their families. The village welfare development committee and officials from ministry of federal affairs of Nepal were also present,” Bitu Soni, another member who accompanied the children told Deccan Herald.

“There were a lot of things that hindered the restoration process, especially language that proved the biggest hurdle. There was no shop to get documents photocopied in the village. So we had to wait there for a day to finish paperwork and officially hand over the kids to their families,” added Soni.