Uttarakhand: rescued, but homeless, helpless and unwanted

Dehradun: The military and other agencies have pulled out all stops in their efforts to rescue people in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand. But not all stories of rescue have had a happy ending. There is the three-year-old at a Dehradun hospital with both legs in fractured, whose name no one knows and whose parents can't be found. And then there is Babli.

Babli, rescued by personnel of the Indo Tibetan Border Police from Gaurikund, is 16 and has lived a harrowing life.

Abandoned by her mother, she was forced by relatives into an illegal marriage with an older man, already married and with three children. He too threw her out. The 16-year-old simply has nowhere to go.  

Child rights activists now fear that the Uttarakhand disaster could bring in its grim aftermath new vulnerabilities for young children like Babli. There is even the danger of child trafficking, they fear.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, moved by the story of Babli and that of the three-year-old child waiting to be united with her parents on NDTV, said today that the state would take care of both of them. About Babli he said, "We will take care of her. I thank your channel for highlighting this issue. She will be sent to a nari niketan (state-run home for women). When she turns is 18, we will provide her with some sort of employment in the state. We will take care of all her expenses."

He added that his government, with the help of media, will try its best to locate the three-year-old's parents. "If no from her family comes forward in three to four months, then certainly some family will adopt her," he said. (Uttarakhand: A three-year-old rescued but has nowhere to go)

Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has told NDTV that the panel will take up both cases on priority and will also write to the Chief Minister about them.