Telangana Haj Committee executive officer Sajjad Ali said “Due to the extreme heat and difficulties faced by pilgrims in last year's Haj, the Saudi Arabia government cancelled the visas of minors.”
Hyderabad: the Haj visas of 291 children, aged less than 12, were cancelled in India because of Saudi Arabia’s new rule that cites health risks for children due to heat and overcrowding during the pilgrimage. The cancellation has affected 38 children from Telangana, which left the families in disappointment.
As the Haj is considered as a once in lifetime opportunity, they have no other option to leave kids. However, they are worried about safe-keeping of kids at home in their absence but they are trying to make some arrangements to keep them safe. Some parents, in the meantime, are opting out of the pilgrimage.
Telangana Haj Committee executive officer Sajjad Ali said “Due to the extreme heat and difficulties faced by pilgrims in last year's Haj, the Saudi Arabia government cancelled the visas of minors.”
This restriction is expected to continue for the next two years until Haj no longer falls in summer, he said, adding that the full refund will be processed to the children's accounts.
He said they received a few cancellation requests from the parents. In some cases, only mothers are cancelling the pilgrimage.
A parent of an infant, who asked for anonymity, shared, “We planned to leave the child in Saudi Arabia with relatives, and perform major rituals in five days. When we got to know about the reason for cancellation being high temperature and overcrowding, we took it in a positive way. It is a once in a life opportunity for us to perform Haj and it is not possible to visit multiple times and it gets difficult to go in old age. So we have decided to leave the kid with my mother,” the parent explained.
Another parent Mohammed Mazheeruddin Majeed shared, “As we got the information at the last moment, it was tough to leave an infant with someone for 45 days.” If we were informed earlier, we could have planned better, and would have performed the Haj peacefully without any tension about the kid. Now we are worried about the kid. So my spouse is planning to drop out of the pilgrimage,” he added.
“After the visa cancellation, we were blank. It was very stressful to leave a kid. Officials have recently called and assured the refund in a few days,” shared a mother of a two-year-old. However, she said they are planning to leave my kid at my mother’s place.
