These children play with skulls

Unbelievable but true. Children here are seen playing with bones and skulls. This is Bodigani Thota graveyard in Nellore wherein 250 families from Tamil Nadu migrated and made this place their home. The children in the area live in unhygienic conditions.

These families have no ration card, no water connections or electricity. Most of the children are abandoned and orphans. The ironical part is they have voting rights but not even Aadhaar card.

To add to their woes there is a garbage dumping ground creating more problems. The children of these families are in a pathetic malnourished condition. There is no Anganwadi center or a government school for these children. It is a pathetic scene wherein children are seen playing with bones and skulls as a normal child played with toys. They do not think these as bone or skull but a plaything. These children roaming half-naked with these skulls is a sight difficult to digest.

They are all addicted to Gutka and Whitener. They eat the food thrown for the corpses during the last rites. Begging and rag picking is a source of livelihood for these families. Adolescent girls make prostitution their profession and a few girls are married at a tender age of 7 or 8 years. In 2011, Vasantha Lakshmi Foundation along with the then SP Raman Rao could mobilise about 100 children to a Hostel run by Police department, Child And Police (CAP). The destitute, abandoned and orphaned children are rehabilitated at the Child and Police project (CAP) in Nellore. The CAP project began with restoration of destitute children who used to loiter in Bodigani Thota, ‘picking up' coins thrown on coffins and playing around with skulls and bones. Now this building has to be vacated as the building belongs to Police Welfare Association. There are no proper facilities like toilets or infrastructure in these premises.

Their innocent eyes are seeking help and they are dreaming of a school and books. The Child Rights Commission visited this place and has given directions to the District Collector, Nellore to evacuate the people from burial ground and give proper amenities to them. The children should have proper nutrition with an Anganwadi center and school informed Achyut Rao and Dr Mamtha, both members of AP Child Rights Commission.