Messiah of Missing Children

Happiness delivery: Reuniting lost children with their parents; rescuing abandoned and abused children

- AMITABH SRIVASTAVA

RAJ KUMAR, 43

Directorate of Social Welfare-cumEmpowerment of Persons with Disability

Patna, Bihar

It was two years ago that Bihar social department head Raj Kumar first heard about 10-year-old Prakash (name changed). The boy, who spoke only Bangla and suffered from epilepsy, was found stranded at Muzaffarpur railway station by the police in 2015. He had apparently got lost while taking a train all by himself from his home in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman to his grandparents’ place in Malda. Social welfare officials shifted Prakash to a state-run children’s home in Saharsa. His daily needs were taken care of there but his future remained uncertain.

Moved by the boy’s plight, Kumar stepped in. His first priority was to address his medical condition. Prakash underwent treatment at government and private hospitals in Muzaffarpur and Patna. Within a year, his seizures came under control. But Kumar, a 2010 batch IAS officer, had a bigger goal. He wanted to see Prakash reunited with his family. His team tried to trace back Prakash’s ill-fated train journey, visited towns and cities in West Bengal and sought the help of officials in Bengal and Jharkhand, but without any headway.