Destitute kids found in Salmaniya sent back to India

Manama : Two children who were kept neglected in a flat in Salmaniya without proper food or care for over two months, has left to their hometown in India. 

DT News had reported on April 9 that the kids, one of whom is an Indian School Bahrain student, were left to fend for themselves while the father, a drunkard, never cared for them and the mother was forced to leave Bahrain after being caught working illegally.

According to their neighbour, the miserable children, a boy and a girl, were seen collecting food from waste bins.

Following the revelation, ISB Chairman Prince S Natarajan and Secretary Dr Shemily P John visited their flat where the children were living in a miserable condition.

The kids were then sheltered by the Indian Embassy and left to the south Indian state of Kerala via Gulf Air tonight.

A reliable source had told DT News earlier that the father was addicted to alcohol and never cared for the children.

After their mother abruptly left for India two months ago, the state of the kids have been pathetic with not even anything to eat.

The eldest of the kids, the girl studying in Class 7 at ISB had not attended class since the school reopened last week.

She has been promoted to Class 8 but the parents have neither collected her Progress Report nor paid the school fees.

Sources added that the kids were neglected due to problems between their parents who are on the verge of a divorce.

The children were taken to the Indian Embassy that assisted them in all possible ways.

The parents hail from Muvattupuzha in the Indian state of Kerala.

The children had earlier revealed that their father who went to work at 7am everyday only returned at midnight and there was nobody else to take care of them in the flat shared by several expat bachelors.

The incident came to light when the girl’s classmate informed her parents that her friend was absent from school for several days.

The friend's parents enquiry into the reason for the child's absence led to the shocking revelation.

Indian social worker Basheer Ambalayi who visited the kids in their flat expressed his shock and called the case "strange" and hoped this would be the last such case in Bahrain.