The nowhere children

Despite tall claims by the Orissa state’s Women and Child Development Department and the publicity blitz by non governmental organisations (NGOs) of children being re-united with their community, a controversy still rages over their whereabouts. One year down the line, neither the state government nor the NGOs has definitive information about where the affected children were taken, how many of them were re-united with their families, and how many of them were still missing.

NGOs put the number of orphaned children at more than 1,500, while the state government sticks to a more conservative 500. This estimate doesn’t account for children who lost only one parent or were sold as child labour.According to records of village panchayats, both the figures are far too conservative. Nearly 6,000 children are said to have been orphaned and the whereabouts of most of them are still not known, panchayats have told grass-root NGOs.

Because of the failure on the part of Orissa government in monitoring both the condition of children in the aftermath of the cyclone and the nature of NGOs dealing with the adoption of orphaned children, things have got murkier.

Soon after the cyclone, in the first week of November ’99, several orphanages started taking children in — some were orphans while others were handed over by their guardians. Several NGOs also started `picking up’ children for rehabilitation. While no one knows for sure how many children were picked up by orphanages, a guestimate by the Orissa Disaster Mitigation Mission (ODMM) is around 350 children.

However, according to SOS Children’s Village, it adopted 235 cyclone affected children, of which 105 still remain in the village while the rest were handed over to their parents.

In order to check the random picking up of children, the state government in December 1999 set up `Mamata Gruhas’ (interim homes) to ensure community-based rehabilitation of children. Forty-four Mamata Gruhas were set up by the government, 35 in Ersama block alone, four in Astarang of Puri district, two each in Mahakalpada of Kendrapara district and Paradip and one in Potani of Jagatsinghpur district. The Mamata Gruhas were later handed over to an NGO, Action Aid India. Nearly 810 orphans were identified and cared for in the interim homes.

The inter-sectoral team Leader of the United Nations, S.K. Jha, who was posted in Jagatsinghpur during the cyclone, says “It was a praiseworthy attempt by the state government to find a solution for community-based rehabilitation. But the implementing NGOs and community members need to correctly interpret the idea.”

However, the state government in a recent notification directed Action Aid to dismantle the Mamata Gruhas and place the orphans with their relatives or under the care of panchayats. This has again pushed the process of rehabilitation into uncertainty.

The secretary of the Women and Child Development Department, Alka Panda refutes allegations by some NGOs and village panchayats that the Mamata Gruhas were dismantled due to mismanagement and the government’s failure to monitor its operations. “It was felt that children kept in the Mamata Gruhas located far away from the villages were isolated from their relatives. To ensure their social security, the Mamata Gruhas are being dismantled,” she explained.

Even as the NGOs and the government squabble over what’s to be done with the children, reports of increase in child labour and sale of children are coming in. NGOs like Forum Against Child Exploitation (FACE) has reported to the WCD Department that several children who could not be traced for rehabilitation were taken away to other districts either for child labour or immoral trafficking.

The convenor of FACE, Mahendra Parida, said, “During a recent survey, it was found that nearly one-third of the affected children are engaged as domestic servants or as labourers in various industries. Since the Mamata Gruhas have been dismantled, it is apprehended that cases of child labour and child prostitution will further increase in the affected districts.”