Sunday, January 10, 2010

Whose fault? Who pays!

Sanjay is 18 years old boy from a small village in Uttar Pradesh. He came to Mumbai two years ago in search of work after his father died of prolonged illness. He has his mother and two younger daughters to support.
He found a job at a restaurant where he was getting Rs 4000 as a salary along with food. He would stay at the restaurant itself.
In addition, in the morning he would deliver newspapers for that extra income. He would send money to his family every month. However, last month when he was returning after delivering the newspaper; he was stopped by the policemen. He was told that some furniture was to be shifted in the police station so he should go with them. However, on reaching the police station; he was kept with 30 odd people who were arrested by the police. Most of them were the migrant workers, doing odd tasks in different trades.
He was taken to court which sent him on remand to beggars home. Probation officer didn’t have enough time to check with his case. However, after he had spent 10 days in custody, a social worker met him and offered to contact his family and get him released.
But Sanjay turned down this help fearing that on knowing that he is into jail, his mother would be completely shattered. Also, nobody would marry his sisters. Thinking all this, he had decided to stay in beggars home. He thought that after remand period, he’ll be out and then everything would be fine.
However, when he was released, he was shocked to know that his employer was not ready to keep him on work. Also; he refused to pay his previous dues. His position was that he can’t trust somebody who has been arrested by the police.
Today, Sanjay is unemployed even after a month. He is back to the street: lifestyle of abuse and exploitation that he had managed to come out of after very long struggle.
( From the naratives prepared from real cases two years ago.)

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