Thread by @DisabilityIndia

It's #ChildrensDay2019 in India today, so gather around for a rambling story about a Colaba boy called Tarun who loves balloons.

(Almost said loved there, but how this story ends is up to you and the youniverse.)

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza Tarun also loves to dance.

Flashback to the eve of another Indian great's birthday...

It's 1st October and Maharashtra is in the throes of election fever.

Tarun is carried away by an election rally, dancing away from his comfort zone of home, neighbours and balloon seller.

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza That was Tarun grooving away, enjoying his dance moves, grinning happily in his black t-shirt and blue 3/4 pants with a party scarf someone draped on him.

There's something almost Pied Piperesque about him being drawn away from safety. Strange one should think of Pied Piper...

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza ...what with the all-too-real trope of disabled children being left behind in the form of the 'Poor Lame Boy' of Hamelin. (But that's a story for another day.)

Tarun doesn't have a visible disability. He does however dance to the beat of a different drum - he lives with autism.

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp He's also mostly non-verbal and has low vision.

If what comes next for this 16 year old student of Jai Vakeel special school in Sewri isn't dangerous enough, Tarun is also without his usual thick spectacles, as they broke the previous day.

/The music stopped and I stood still/

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp .. /And found myself outside the hill,
Left alone against my will/

Tarun was lost and couldn't find his way home.

It's upsetting to think of him at that moment, so let's distract ourselves with some data. Sobering, bleak but a diffuse kind of upset.

indiatoday.in/education-toda…

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp A child goes missing in India every 8 minutes. Approximately half the children who go missing remain untraced.

But as this article points out, the stories behind the NCRB statistics can be mutilayered and complex.

But not in Tarun's case.

thehindu.com/society/indias…

#MissingChild

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp To the system, Tarun's 'case' is plain and simple - a child has gotten lost.

Though the process does pose challenges due to presence of disability, it's nothing compared to the exponential whammy of being a child + missing + disabled in India. (Worse if an invisible disability.)

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp Distraction break over, let's move back to Tarun. 45 days after the music stopped leaving him alone near Flora Fountain, Tarun's still missing.

Not for want of trying on @vinodd2017's part.

Tarun's father Vinod Gupta filed FIR 248/2019 the same day at MRA Marg police station.

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice @DGPMaharashtra @PIBHomeAffairs @TrackChild @NCPCR_ @CHILDLINE1098 @CRYINDIA 45 days after Tarun's frantic parents filed FIR 248/2019 at MRA Marg police station, it is yet to be seen online at the @MaharashtraPolice portal for dissemination and further integration via CCTNS.

Like Tarun and the Maharashtra Govt, it too is missing!

mhpolice.maharashtra.gov.in/Citizen/MH/Pub…

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice @DGPMaharashtra @PIBHomeAffairs @TrackChild @NCPCR_ @CHILDLINE1098 @CRYINDIA @IPS_Association @ivmahadeshwar @NCRBHQ Also missing in action are the @MumbaiPolice whose inaction has been put down to bandobust duty. Similar crowd control duty of @chennaipolice_ resulted in multiple lapses in the tragic case of Praveen, killed in a road accident shortly after he got lost. thenewsminute.com/article/not-ac…

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice @DGPMaharashtra @PIBHomeAffairs @TrackChild @NCPCR_ @CHILDLINE1098 @CRYINDIA @IPS_Association @ivmahadeshwar @NCRBHQ @chennaipolice_ Meanwhile @Rpfcr another authority existing to protect was making Tarun's life miserable by their actions.

The boy whose father @vinodd2017 says "does not even cross the road by himself" boarded a train at CSTM station the day he got lost, alighting at Panvel - hungry, crying.

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice @DGPMaharashtra @PIBHomeAffairs @TrackChild @NCPCR_ @CHILDLINE1098 @CRYINDIA @IPS_Association @ivmahadeshwar @NCRBHQ @chennaipolice_ @rpfcr On 3rd Oct, after Tarun somehow survived 2 days on his own, a @Central_Railway RPF officer annoyed by the hapless boy's repeated pleas for water, 'packed him off' in a Goa headed train's cargo compartment instead of informing @CHILDLINE1098 !

#IKidYouNot

indianexpress.com/article/cities…

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice @DGPMaharashtra @PIBHomeAffairs @TrackChild @NCPCR_ @CHILDLINE1098 @CRYINDIA @IPS_Association @ivmahadeshwar @NCRBHQ @chennaipolice_ @rpfcr @Central_Railway A CCTV grab in Santanwadi Railway Station, Sindhudurg shows Tarun crying and asking people for food. He sat on the platform for an hour before taking Janshatabdi Express train back to Mumbai and when he refused to get up from a seat was dragged out and almost off the train by RPF

@vinodd2017 @drsitu @MajDPSingh @SCVashishth @ActionAutism @AutismSupportIN @JoChopra @smritiirani @fayedsouza @Manekagandhibjp @MumbaiPolice @CPMumbaiPolice @DGPMaharashtra @PIBHomeAffairs @TrackChild @NCPCR_ @CHILDLINE1098 @CRYINDIA @IPS_Association @ivmahadeshwar @NCRBHQ @chennaipolice_ @rpfcr @Central_Railway @PiyushGoyal @PiyushGoyalOffc @RPF_INDIA @TCGEHLOT @TcGehlotOffice @netshrink @val_resh The last sightings of Tarun in Virar, Bandra and Kandivli are from last week which partly restored the flagging spirits of the 30-strong team of Tarun's family and friends who were beginning to despair wondering if Tarun was even alive.

By now he could be anywhere. #BringHimHome