Nation»
Mute girl without past searches for future
KATHMANDU, DEC 10 - She does not have the past. Ask her, her name in all different languages you know. She will look around as if she has not heard anything or will start to wail and weep. She has not spoken even one intelligible word in the last 20 days. A person needs to constantly attend to her as she cannot eat on her own and has no idea that calls of nature are relieved in toilets. There are no ‘missing’ reports with the police matching her description.Her silence and strange behaviour has led the volunteers at Helpline, an organisation working for the welfare of women and children, to presume that she has both hearing-and speaking disability. And this is precisely the reason that deterred nearly a dozen child welfare organisations that Helpline repeatedly contacted, from taking her under their guardianship.
Archana Sharma, chairman of Helpline, is at a loss as to where to take her. "It is clear that her parents deserted her after being unable to provide support and care. Even if we knew who they are, it would be meaningless to take her back home. Since we do not have permanent shelter for such children, we always hand them over to other child welfare organizations. Surprisingly, no organization is willing to take her," she said.
A mobile police unit of Sohrakhutte Police Post picked up the nameless girl, who could not be more than seven years of age, from Balaju on November 25. Police have said that the girl was trying a dangerous stunt of holding the front wheel of a speeding motorbike when she was spotted.
Police kept her with them for four days, and being unable to get from her any information including her name, home, or parents, they rummaged through the ‘missing’ complaints to see if she would fit into any description. She did not. Clueless and unable to think what to do with her, they handed her over to Helpline on November 30.At the Helpline Office in Samakhushi where she is being kept, she has been demonstrating unmistakable sings of severe abuse in the recent past. She shudders upon seeing any male come near her, and violently refuses to go inside any room. During the last nine days, she has been stubborn, in her mute language, about living and sleeping outside the Helpline building, in the cold. She eats when offered meals, but never asks for it.
Helpline contacted child welfare organisations including Nava Jyoti Kendra, Organisation for the Hearing Impaired, Nirmal Child Development Organization, Sungava Organisation for the Mentally-Challenged, Mentally-Challenged Center, Jeevan Kalyan, and Organisation for the Welfare of the Mentally-Challenged.
"None of them showed willingness to take her in. The reason that they cited was that they don’t take the mentally-challenged," said Sharma.As a last resort, Sharma took the girl twice to Nepal Children’s Organisation, with a formal letter from police requesting her enrollment. They flatly refused, citing her ‘disabilities’ as the reason.Dr Nawaraj Koirala of Mental Health Project told The Kathmandu Post that the project has no provision of taking children who have not been brought by relatives. "We cannot take her," he said.
The girl has, despite her muteness, managed to raise pointed questions regarding the limitations of child welfare organisations in the country. "Do we have no organisations, state-owned or private, to take care of such helpless children," enquire Helpline volunteers.
Getting answer to this question may be just as difficult as making this girl break her silence.Posted on: 2003-12-11 04:33
Headlines
Advertisements
