The Jaipur case
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: March 23, 2013 -
On March 12, fifty-one children, aged between 5 and 17, were rescued from two illegal children homes run by one Jacob John aka Pastor John from Kerala in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Among the 51 rescued kids, 21 are from Manipur and six from Nagaland. Again, out of the 21, 17 are from Ukhrul, 3 from Tamenglong and one from Chandel district.
Various social organizations have been mounting pressures on the Government of Manipur for bringing back the rescued Manipuri kids as well as for proper counseling and their rehabilitation.
These organizations are particularly unhappy over the fact that the Government of Manipur has not been as prompt as its Nagaland counterpart in taking up necessary arrangements for bringing back the rescued kids when the news of the incident spread.
As a matter of fact, it was almost after a week of the raid conducted in the two illegal children homes that led to the rescued of the kids that the Director of Social Welfare Department, Government of Manipur came up with an appeal to all the family members concerned and public not to be overwhelmed with fear and anxiety and assured that all the rescued children are safe in a State-run Children Home in Rajasthan where they are being provided proper counselling by FXB-Suraksha and the State Social Welfare Department is closely coordinating with the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Rajasthan and Child Welfare Committee, Jaipur since the Department received an official report about the rescue of children on March 12.
This is not the first time that Manipuri children, who were trafficked to other parts of the country after hoodwinking their poor parents by some 'local middlemen' with promise of better education or job facilities for their kids, have been rescued.
There have been numerous cases in the past and the slow reaction of the State Government over such cases has always been a cause of concern to many, and the present case has been no exception.
But what is unnerving in the present case is the prolonged 'silence' of the State Government as some organizations working in the field of child rights have alleged.
Apart from the State Government taking almost a week to come up with an official statement on the issue through its Director of Social Welfare, it is surprising to note that some section of the local media, particularly those related to the districts where the rescued kids belong, are giving a complete blank-out of the latest Jaipur case from its coverage and the elected local MLAs concerned are keeping their mouth tightly shut.
Does this indicate something far more sinister 'politico-media nexus' deep down than what we could see on the surface? With 'forbidden talks' of near and dear ones of some influential local media barons with close political connection involving in the latest Jaipur case started doing the round in hush-hush tone, we could not help but to suspect of such a sinister design.
But how we wish we were proven wrong on this suspicion!
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.