Heroes are often found in the unlikeliest of places, and while doing a stint to encourage journalists to report more proactively on child issues, I literally stumbled across this guy at an emergency shelter run by People First, a Gaya based NGO. People First is the brainchild of Nick Hanson, a Brit who fell in love with Bodh Gaya and his trusted friend Deepak Kumar, and it’s into a lot of skill-building work with poor kids and their parents. But let’s get back to the story:

Eight year old Bablu Kumar and his two companions, both named Chhotu aged 6 and 7 years, would have been slaving away at some dark hole in Jaipur by now, had it not been for Mr Ordinary Citizen who recognized that these three small Nawada lads were being trafficked and did something about it.

When Mridank Shekhar Tripathy boarded the general compartment of the Ajmer-Sealdah Express at Gaya station, a little over a fortnight ago, he chanced to see three boys aged six to eight sitting opposite him, looking subdued and nervous. 30 year old Tripathy, working with a pharmaceutical outfit as a rep, is keenly observant. “I guessed that these three kids were on board without their parents, so I beckoned to the oldest one and asked him where he was going. I found out that they were being taken to Jaipur to work. Even as the train began moving, I tried to raise an alarm and shout out to the GRP men on the platform, but they took no notice. Other passengers didn’t want to get involved, but maybe because of the alarm I had raised, the man who was accompanying the boys did not come anywhere near them.”

Tripathy got off the train with the three boys at Sasaram, prevailed upon a reluctant railway cop to contact Gaya Childline, and ensured that he three children were brought back to the crisis centre run by People First, a local NGO working with railway children. Curiously, the policemen at Sasaram refused to register an FIR in the matter, saying that the report would have to be filed in a Gaya police station. ‘This sort of passing the buck is common when it comes to children’s trafficking issues,’ observed Rakesh Ranjan of People First.

The Childline staff looked after and counselled the kids, and apprised the Gaya CWC (Chidren’s Welfare Committee) of the matter. “On the basis of what the children told us, they came from Amarpur village in Nawada district. On the 31^st July, the children were then duly handed over to the Nawada CWC. The children’s fathers, Shiva Manjhi, Shankar Manjhi, and Lalji Manjhi were summoned and they admitted that they had sent their kids out to work, entrusting their care to a ‘relative’,” Childline team member Parasnath said over the telephone. Typically, the three kids belonged to the ‘sadai’ or Musahar caste. These are the poorest of the Dalit communities, named after their hunting and eating of field rodents. The parents were hauled up by the committee, made to understand the gravity of their act, and ordered to sign a bond ensuring that they would not repeat the offence. The Nawada CWC directed that the children be immediately enrolled in the nearest primary school.

On Thursday, the Childline team once again made a follow-up contact. The three kids were in school and the people of Amanpur village have understood that sending out young kids to work is illegal, and also punishable by law.

“Every player within the system worked efficiently to ensure that these three kids were snatched back from the vicious spectre of child slavery,” says Nipurnh Gupta of the Unicef, “but it’s hats off to that one man, a Mr Mridank, was so perceptive that he did his duty as an aware citizen, and stood up and intervened. These kids were lucky to have such a guardian angel!”

Tripathy says that it was his engagement with newspapers and magazines, and observation of life around him that has impelled him to become an ‘activist’ for children in distress. “My family and friends think I am overly sentimental, and that I should not have taken such a risk. They were afraid that corrupt cops could have framed me for trafficking the kids. I too was frightened at the time, but as a responsible adult, how could I ignore the plight of those three kids? But I would appeal to all, that if we just open our eyes, and do our duty as citizens, we could stop these human traffickers.”

  Dateline Bihar, Frank Krishner