Kids running
away or going missing is every parents’ worst nightmare. Imagine, you wake up
one morning to find your kid is missing from home or your kid goes out to play
and does not return home. Isn’t it scary? What pushes a child to run away from
home?
The children run
away mainly because of family or guardian abuse, neglect, conflict with the
law, city attraction, stress, etc. Following is a true-life case of a boy who
ran away from his home not once but twice and was rescued by CHILDLINE. He is
now in safe hands.
In December
2019, Child Help Desk at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) received a case of a
9-year-old child, Ram (name changed) who had run away from his home. The boy
was a resident of Kalyan in Mumbai suburbs. He appeared very calm and composed
in CHILDLINE’s custody. Apparently, he was a repeat offender.
A couple of
years ago, he ran away from his home due to major differences with his brother.
He stated his brother would beat him up regularly. Back then, he wanted to go
to the shelter home. However, as per the orders of the CWC, he was reunited
with his parents and was sent home.
This time too, he ran away citing the same problem and was adamant to not want to go back to his family. He requested to be put up at the shelter home. CHILDLINE informed his parents and they arrived to meet him. The boy was then produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). This time, however, his wish has been granted to reside at the shelter home. Currently, he and his parents are undergoing regular counselling at the shelter home.
In the year 2018-2019, CHILDLINE received about
31779 runaway cases amongst others. Of these 17811 i.e. 56 per cent were city
attraction cases. About 5751 i.e. 18 per cent were runaway cases related to
employment and 8217 cases i.e. 26 per cent were other cases like neglect,
abuse, stress,
