Hyderabad: Child welfare officials of Telangana State have contacted counterparts in Bihar to make arrangements to send back 220 rescued children. Now, officials from Bihar will be visiting the city in the coming days to take details of the children and to find their parents or legal guardians back home.

“There is a strong possibility that agents might come to us claiming to be the boys’ relatives to take them away to employ them again. In order to avoid such a situation, Bihar officials themselves will come here and help us rehabilitate the kids,” said South zone DCP V. Satyanarayana.

The rescued children, who are currently lodged at a home in Ramanthapur, are being provided with essential services. “We provided them with basic necessities and some sports goods, so that they are able to play and relax here,” said Achyuta Rao, a member of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Achyuta Rao.

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The officials have been able to contact only 25 of then children’s parents so far. Most of the younger children could not even provide the address of their homes back in Bihar and have had no contact information of their parents. However, officials here are hoping that with the help of Bihar authorities, the kids can be rehabilitated soon.

Rescued kids return to streets:

When 12-year-old Vinay (name changed) was rescued by the Labour department on June 19 last year, he was very happy. He did not have to work for 16 hours like he used to do in the bangle-manufacturing unit at Talabkatta. Nobody beat him in the rescue home at Saidabad as his malik (employer) used to do in the congested room he shared with 13 other kids.

After three months in the rescue home, he regained his health and boyish charm. His parents from Gaya, Bihar, wre called in by officials and he was handed over to them. But things turned upside down again in a few weeks. When a team of police officials from East Zone found him at an ice cream manufacturing unit in Kacheguda in the first week of January, he had undergone torture for many weeks from the new employer. Vinay said he had no other option but to work since his family was poor.

Similarly this week, 15-year-old Deepak from Nagaram (name changed), was brought to the boy’s rescue home for the third time. He had first run away from his home three years ago after he couldn’t take the beatings from his uncle anymore. He became a whitener addict and started sleeping at the railway platform. He earned a meagre amount by rag picking, and used the money to buy whitener and cheap liquor. He never wanted to go back to his widowed mother and attend school. “I was scared of my uncle, and I did not want to attend school. When I go back home, I do not like it there,” said Deepak.

Last week, police found him with serious burns on his legs due to electrocution after another rag picker made him climb on top of a train.