Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Her eyes relentlessly darted through the crowd of children, looking for a face she last saw four years ago. Hafiza Bibi held out a frayed photograph of her son Sunarul, who disappeared on October 13, 1998.
She came to look for him in what seems like the most unlikely of places8212;a Diwali mela. She had her reasons: the mela is organised by an NGO working with street children, and Hafiza thought that just maybe, she would find her boy here.
She lives with her husband Ghulam Sheikh in a Sandhurst Road shack. 8216;8216;Ever since, all we do is search for him. He will be six years old now. We have been to Thane, Dadar, Matunga, Dongri, Wadala, Chembur, Govandi. To police stations, children8217;s homes. Today, my husband went to Mankhurd to look for him. I have come here.8217;8217;
8216;8216;Every year, we are able to restore 70 to 80 children to their families,8217;8217; Shelter Don Bosco8217;s director, Father Xavier Devadas, told The Indian Express. Nearly 50 NGOs join hands to make the Diwali Mela and nearly 2,500 children troop in for the fun and games.
Abdul Wahab, a father of three children, was hoping that his fourth child, his six-year-old daughter Sahista, would be among them. He too was clutching her photograph, wearing a green pinafore. But with every shake of the head, his light of hope only grew dimmer.
Sahista was playing near her home in Dharavi on December 20 last year. Nobody saw her since.
