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Regular-article-logo Friday, 26 April 2024

Two words to reunite two kids

Childline accomplished the mission in a week with just the two words

Snehamoy Chakraborty Bolpur(Birbhum) Published 22.10.19, 07:27 PM
Eight-year-old Laukan Bankira and six-year-old Jahaj Bankira were separated from their mother Parwati on October 11 as she headed to Burdwan’s Kalna where she worked in a brick kiln

Eight-year-old Laukan Bankira and six-year-old Jahaj Bankira were separated from their mother Parwati on October 11 as she headed to Burdwan’s Kalna where she worked in a brick kiln (Shutterstock)

Two brothers, two words and one big family reunion.

The brothers aged six and eight, rescued from a Burdwan railway platform and unable to speak in anything but their native tribal tongue, were reunited with their family on Tuesday.

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Childline accomplished the mission in a week with just the two words — one the kids’ surname and the other the name of their village in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum — and some help from social media.

Eight-year-old Laukan Bankira and six-year-old Jahaj Bankira were separated from their mother Parwati on October 11 as she headed to Burdwan’s Kalna where she worked in a brick kiln.

The kids could only utter Chamrusai (the village) and Bankira (their surname). What made the search tougher was that places called Chamrusai exist in Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand.

“We looked for the two words on the Internet and found Bankira or Bankara is a surname and Chamrusai the name of a place. But Chamrusai exists in Bengal’s West Midnapore, Odisha’s Mayurbhanj and Jharkhand’s West Singbhum. We contacted the administration in all three places,” said Abhijit Choubey, the Burdwan coordinator of Childline.

Response came on October 18 from Jharkhand where a social worker, Sachchidanand Soren, posted the details of the boys on Facebook.

“I first focused on the areas where the Bankira surname is common. Besides my Facebook post, I shared the information with various social media groups. A youth responded and I directed him to Childline,” said Soren.

Childline officials said they sent the youth with a smartphone to Chamrusai and asked him to make a video call. In the call on October 18, the kids and their father Mangal Bankira recognised each other. Choubey said they were happy with the “achievement”. “On the basis of just two words…. Just imagine.”

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