Mumbai:
Tabish Patel, a 15-year-old student with a grade VII learning disability, went missing from the Society for Rehabilitation of Crippled Children's organisation, Centre for Child Development (CCD), after he was reportedly sent home for arriving at the centre with an unshaven beard. Tabish's family panicked and lodged a missing person's case at the Tardeo police station. The boy returned home at 8 pm on Tuesday.
Tabish was scheduled to appear for his mathematics paper at 8 am at the centre.
According to his uncle Junaid Patel, Tabish had been reprimanded by school authorities for his unkempt condition a week back, and asked to present himself clean-shaven.
Junaid said, "During his exam, a teacher pulled him up for his unshaven beard and asked him to leave the premises. He left the school grounds, but did not return home. The school informed us only at 10 am, after the exam had been concluded, that he had been sent home for his bedraggled appearance. It was only when they enquired if he had reached home, that we realised he was missing. We registered a missing person's case at Tardeo police station, and lodged a complaint against the school."
A school official was summoned to the police station.
He claimed that Tabish had been barred from completing the exam, not because of his scruffy appearance, but because the assignments in his notebook were incomplete. He further said, "Tabish, who suffers from a learning disability, needs a writer for exams. A doctor at Nair Hospital has certified this. The centre, however, did not allow him to avail the help of a writer. We felt that his confidence would be boosted if he wrote the paper himself."
A police official from Tardeo police station confirmed that Junaid Patel had registered a missing person's complaint, in which he had detailed the reasons why the boy had left the school.
He also said that the school had sent them a report in writing, putting forward its own version of the story.
After keeping his family on tenterhooks all day, the boy finally returned home at 8 pm on Tuesday evening.
Clinical psychologist Dr Trupti Jayin, who runs Violet Wings at Andheri, said, "When a child is enrolled at a special centre, it means he has special needs. The centre is duty-bound to take special care of the child. The child should not have been forced to make his way home all by himself. The centre should have asked his parents to fetch him."
Vijay Mahajan, another official from CCD, refused to give details on the issue. He said, "I am not aware of the issues involved, and cannot comment."
He also refused to provide contact numbers of other officials at the centre.