Reunion with family after three years

Nepal is one of the world’s least developed countries in South Asia. About 85% of the population lives from subsistence agriculture in rural areas, coping with great disparities of caste, gender, and geography. Poverty, unemployment, declining natural resources, and more recently the Maoist insurgency are major reasons why international labour migration is an increasingly important source of income.

Tired of poverty and oppression, three children from Surkhet, Gulmi and Doti left their homes and came out to find the solution for their well-being and good life in this society. They decided to leave their dear ones not knowing that the outside world where they are going for their comfort is having so many perils for these little ones.

Coming outside from their home was proved extraneous for these children as they were held in India by the local Police where these children wandering in search of work and were engaged in child labour. These Children were found by Police in Shahjahanpur District of Uttar Pradesh where they were taken to the shelter home for enquiry about their family, but no one spoke anything. Eventually, they were kept in the shelter home for the last three years.

During the implementation of the Swaraksha Anti-Human Trafficking (AHT) program, Caritas India Staff got the information from the Childline of Shahjahanpur about these children after which the information was transferred to the  Partner DEHAT  who is already running a childline.

In response to the information DEHAT  Swaraksha AHT team staff contacted the  ChildLine team and the information was validated by the other district. Swaraksha AHT team staff and Childline took the responsibility of repatriating these three children with the help of counterpart NGOs in Nepal. After much struggle, the family of these children were traced out and contacted which confirmed that these children ran away from their homes long back. As their parents came to know about their children their sorrow turned into joy. This was unbelievable for them that their little ones are alive.  After doing the home investigation, the report was submitted to the shelter home where these children were under custody. Now it was the time for DEHAT team to initiate the repatriation process and finally with the help of the Women, Children and Senior citizen Development office Nepal Govt Banke district the repatriation process was requested. After two days, all the necessary documentation were completed, and the order was received by Caritas India Partner DEHAT to repatriated these three children. The Order was shared with the relevant Child Welfare Committee of the districts where the repatriation process was finalized, and these children were able to meet their parents after three long years. This was great work for DEHAT team members who personally spoke to all children and counselled them. During the counselling, these children revealed that they went through a very tough time once they left the home, and they came across many incidents when they were abused in many ways. Now they are happy that DEHAT team members helped them to bring back to their families after a long period.