After a shocking case of child negligence came up, a district court ordered an inquiry into the matter and demanded an explanation, to which Delhi police replied with an equally shocking answer. The police seems to have forgotten the law itself.
TWO-YEAR-old Prateek lost his way to home in 2004. He was subsequently found by the police, who handed him over to an orphanage, with no standing. The orphanage illegally gave the child for adoption to an industrialist, who showered the boy with all that money can buy. This went on for four years, till, by a court’s order in March, the boy was reunited with his biological parents, who are not rich.
Prateek has settled in his new home, but not without asking why his previous life was taken away from him. His story had thrown up several issues that our lawmakers don’t take into account, while dealing with children — insensitivity and ignorance being cardinal among them. Prateek’s story has also brought to the fore the police’s helplessness, when they find an child abandoned on the streets, the subsequent role and decisions of orphanages and societies that have such children in their custody — because every wrong decision scars the child....
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