Two 13-year-old boys in Bihar — Satyam Kumar and Suraj Kumar — have become the latest symbols of the extreme contrasts of life in the state. The poignant difference between the trajectories of their lives has drawn wide attention and unlikely comparison.
While Satyam shot to limelight for being the youngest Indian to crack the highly competitive IIT-JEE, Suraj was reunited with his parents after spending eight years with his abductors who forced him to backbreaking work at roadside hotels. While Satyam’s family is savouring his stupendous success and future prospects; Suraj’s family is dejected to know that the boy’s two abducted young sisters were sold to traffickers years ago.
“I only remember that those people (his new owners who got him from his abductors) were talking about sending my two sisters from Muzaffarpur to Delhi just days after our abduction. I hope my lost sisters are alive and I will gain the strength to look for them and find them,” said Suraj after his formal entry into freedom with the help of the NGO Prayas.
Suraj was abducted from his home in Muzaffarpur at the age of five in 2005 along with his two sisters — Lakshmi, 11, and Neha, 2. The abductors drugged the three siblings into unconsciousness before carrying them away, he said. He finally managed to flee from a dhaba in Samastipur where he was made to work in March.
“He came to the town police station there, narrated his experiences and urged the police to reunite him with his parents. But the cops paid little attention to him and instead made him work at the police station from March 17 to 25. When we learnt of his condition, we launched a search for his parents and got them reunited,” said Prayas state coordinator Suresh Kumar.
For Suraj’s parents — Raj Kumar Jha and Basanti Devi — finding the boy alive after eight years is a dream come true. “We may not be as lucky as the Bhojpur boy’s (Satyam) parents, but we are happy,” said Mr Jha.