Nine days ago, when a few NGO volunteers and the local police found a homeless 15-year-old boy in New Delhi, they had assumed that the boy was lost, and his parents would no doubt rejoice to have him back. But after attempting to reunite him with his family in Pune, they realised that the boy had been abandoned by his father, who hadn’t even bothered to register a missing complaint at any police station.

New Delhi-based NGO, Sathi works to locate and help missing children. It was Sathi volunteers who had discovered the boy, Prakash Bikka, alone and homeless at a railway station, staring at the platform. With the New Delhi Police’s help, the boy was taken to an orphanage in the city.

The NGO’s child counsellor, Pradip Singh even attempted to contact the Pune Police to learn about Bikka’s family, but found close to no information. Yesterday, Singh had contacted the New Delhi police, and through them, he reached out to the Maharashtra police.

The state police in turn contacted the Pune city and Pune rural police control rooms to ask all police stations in their jurisdiction to check for a missing complaint for Bikka. The Pune Police were, however, unable to find any clues.

On questioning Bikka, Singh realised that the boy’s father had in fact told him to go away and earn his own living, and had even bought a train ticket to Delhi for him.

“Bikka is an introvert and takes time to open up. During counselling and interactions, Bikka revealed that he hails from Nepal and used to live in Chakan with his parents and siblings. He burst into tears as he spoke of his family. He described his house in Pune, and said his family lived there on rent, and even added that the owner of the house is named Anil. But when I contacted the Pune Police, I did not receive any confirmation,” said Singh.

Bikka recalled, “I had completed primary school and then started helping my father run the house. I used to live in Chakan with my parents and four younger siblings. My father works as a driver and I used to help him. But during Diwali, there was a financial problem, and my father put me on a train to New Delhi and told me to earn my own bread and butter.”