Assam kid lost and found in Chennai

Chennai: When five-year old Kajal finally saw her mother on Thursday after more than two months of separation, she had the biggest smile on her face and she made sure she didn’t let go her mother’s clutches even for a minute.  The first thing she told her mother was that she had prayed to God every day that her mother would return to find her.

Kajal had been praying since May 28, the day she was “mistaken” for a lost child by the child helpline officials at the Egmore railway station, from where she was scheduled to board a train to Assam with her mother. They had come to the city to visit a relative. When her mother was in the restroom, Kajal waited with the luggage outside. Railway police spotted her and then “rescued” her and contacted the child helpline services who then handed her over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

While the helpline officials were busy rescuing the child without verifying, Kajal’s mother was frantically looking for her daughter at Egmore station. Talking to the Deccan Chronicle, she said she filed a verbal complaint to police who said they would not be able to help since she had no photographs of the child.

The mother tried to explain that she had left a bag with the child containing all the child’s documents, including her birth certificate, her own documents, clothes and other belongings. “I was confused about what was happening, the police told me to take the train back home and bring back a picture. They said they would

let me know if they found my daughter,” the mother explained. Helpless and alone, the mother took the train back home that night. “I would weep every night for my daughter,” the mother said. “If we had the money we would have made more trips, but we couldn’t afford it,” said Kajal’s father, a daily wage earner.

When the Child Welfare Committee in Chennai forwarded the details of the child to their counterpart in Assam, they got in touch with the parents and gave them the good news. The elated parents were then told that the child would be sent to Assam with an escort. After endless waiting, the parents got in touch with the CWC in Chennai who told them they couldn’t find an escort and therefore the parents finally came and took her back.