M A I N   N E W S

Trapped Childhood
Caught between diplomacy and despondency
Chitleen K Sethi
Tribune News Service

Hoshiarpur/Jalandhar/Faridkot, June 17
Seven-year-old Mohammad Nabi can be seen crying incessantly for several hours every day. Begging to be sent to his mother, he is huddled close to his brother, Noor, who is only two years elder to him. And when Noor also gives in to tears, their eldest brother, 13-year-old Parvez, puts up a brave face and reassures them that they will soon be reunited with their parents.

The three brothers, along with their cousins (aged 11 and 9), from Myanmar (Burma) are under arrest. They have been lodged in the observation home at Hoshiarpur since October, 2008, separated from their parents for nine months now. Surrounded by strangers, the kids are visibly traumatised. “Please send me to my mother. I miss her,” requests Nabi to this correspondent.

These children are among 35 Burmese, who were arrested by the Tarn Taran police while trying to cross over to Pakistan. “We have been living in Pakistan for a decade. We had gone to Burma for a short visit and were returning home,” says Parvez.

While the adults and 14 toddlers are lodged in the Amritsar jail, these five were bought to Hoshairpur, while five girls were sent to the observation home at Jalandhar.

Since these families were living in Pakistan (and not Burma), they are caught between the two nations with no one ready to own them.

In fact, the Burmese kids are not the only ones whose childhood is trapped between nations. The observation home at Hoshairpur houses 94 juvenile delinquents out of which more than 12 are from India’s neighbouring countries. They are being tried for various offences under the Foreigners Act and the Passport Act. Many have been languishing here for years. Two of them, a Pakistani and a Nepalese, have even completed their sentence and are awaiting repatriation.

Madhogiri, an 18-year-old from Nepal has been here for three years and has completed his sentence. Buddha (13) and Deepak (11), also from Nepal, have been here for over six months. “We are from Navagaon and were brought to India as tourists by an uncle. But he left us to work as domestic helps in Amritsar. We ran away from there,” narrates Buddha. The two were caught stealing a mobile phone and a Scooty from the house they worked in. Their parents in Nepal are probably unaware that their sons are languishing in an observation home.

There are also four inmates from Pakistan. Among them are 19-year-old Rashid Hussain, son of Khalid Hussain of Dera Gazi Khan in Peshawar, 16-year-old Hilafat Ali of Reham Da Phool, Lahore, and Bilal Mohammad, a 19-year-old from Karachi. The three have been here for almost two years. Mohammad Adnan, a 17-year-old from Lahore, has completed six months of imprisonment but has been awaiting repatriation for the past one year.

Twelve-year-old Sunil, a resident of Mandi Bahawaldin in Pakistan, was caught 13 months ago trying to cross the border. He is lodged in the observation home at Faridkot. “My father lives in Saudi Arabia, while my mother works as domestic help. I wanted to work in India and help her,” he told The Tribune.

Umar Farooque a 10-year-old from Bangladesh, is the latest foreign addition to the Hoshiarpur observation home. He has been here for a week after he was caught with his family working at Amritsar without any documents. His 11-year-old sister is lodged in the observation home for girls at Jalandhar.

No hope either

“Under the Government of India Repatriation of Prisoners Act-2003, the convicted prisoner can make a request for transfer, and the request will have to be agreed upon by the transferring and the receiving state. Under this Act, India has signed bilateral treaties with several countries so far, but not with any neighbouring country,” pointed out Dr Upneet Lalli, Deputy Director of the Institute of Correctional Administration, Chandigarh.

“However under the Vienna convention on consular relations, consular officers have the right to visit and communicate with their nationals, who are in detention or custody, and arrange for their legal representation. A major stumbling block, however, is verifying the antecedents of the nationals arrested,” she added.

Till date, no diplomatic representative from either of the countries concerned has visited these children. “We have sent details of all such cases to the intelligence bureau in Delhi. It is for them to take further action,” said Gaurav Yadav, DIG, Intelligence, Punjab.