NUAPADA: A minor girl of Kerapadar village within Boden police limits, who had gone missing one year back, was rescued by the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) and reunited with her family on Wednesday.
District Child Protection Officer Baldev Rath said the girl was taken to Andhra Pradesh along with her elder brother and sister-in-law in July last year to work in a brick kiln.
However, the girl was not allowed to work in the kiln as she was underage. A few locals there arranged to send the girl back to her village. However, while returning she somehow got down at Durg, Chhattisgarh.
As the minor was in a state of shock and could not speak, a person handed her over to Child Welfare Committee in Durg.
The girl stayed at the one-stop centre of Sishu Kalyan Samiti there for a few months. During counselling, the girl could not provide details of her hometown. However, as she spoke in Odia, she was transferred to the CWC in Bilaspur as a counsellor there was from Odisha.
Around a month back, the girl said she belonged to Nuapada. Subsequently, the officials of CWC, Bilaspur communicated with their counterparts in the district about the girl. She was then counselled over phone by the members of Nuapada CWC.
Basing on inputs, the CWC started to search for the girl’s address. One Saudagar Sahu, a panchayat samiti member of Pharsara gram panchayat helped CWC in ascertaining her address and the officials came to know that the girl belonged to Kerapadar.
The CWC here again communicated with their counterparts in Bilaspur to bring the girl back. On Tuesday night, police along with CWC staff and Rath received the girl at Khariar road railway station from where she was taken to the one-stop centre of Sishu Kalyan Samiti.
On the direction of the head of Sishu Kalyan Samiti Nuapada, Ramesh Chandra Bhoi, the girl was restored to her father on the day.