Eight children rescued

BIRATNAGAR, Dec 1: Eight alleged orphan children brought from Dhading have been rescued by the CWIN Helpline after an orphanage refused to take them in as it found the document of the children dubitable.



Morang Police on Saturday arrested a person while trying to admit the children to Purwanchal Anathasram (Child Service Home) without following due procedure.[break]



Dorje Tamang of Dhading, who had brought 8 alleged orphan children from Dhading to admit them to Purwanchal Anathasram, was detained after the documents related to the children he furnished seemed faked. After Purwanchal Anathasram refused to take the children brought by Tamang, the children were brought to CWIN Helpline office, which in turn called the police to look into the issue.



The documents proving the children orphans have been signed by Hari Upreti, an officer with Dhading Child Welfare Committee. Tamang, who turned up with the children to put them at the orphanage, is being questioned by the police.



According to the legal provision, an approval letter signed by Chief District Officer (CDO) of a child´s home district is required to put a child in an orphanage. But Tamang had not brought requisite documents like approval letters from Dhading CDO, recommendation letters from VDC and death certificate of their parents.



“Even the letter written by Dhading Child Welfare Committee is flawed in many places. After talking with the children, we felt that they were coerced to pose as orphans,” said Bishnu Poudel of CWIN helpline.



According to CWIN, the parents of most of the children brought by Tamang are still alive and the children were studying at local schools in their village. The eight children rescued from Tamang are from Pipling and Jharlan VDC in Dhading and are aged between 4 to 11 years.



For instance, the letter written by Dhading Child Welfare Committee says that both parents of Prem Maya and Anjali Tamang had died in a bus accident on July 6, 2008. But the same letter also recommends admitting Prem Maya and Anjali in the orphanage as their mother eloped with other person leaving the two girls to fend for themselves.



Similarly, the letter said Pema Ghale and Kalimaya Tamang of Pipling went missing in a flood last year and recommended that their son be admitted to an orphanage. “The letter has requested the orphanage to take the children to its refuge because their parents are missing,” said Poudel.

Related story

Worth of stories