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Early High
Bonefix
is generally used to fix soles to shoes. But at the Bhopal Railway Station,
it affords young children an escape from their nondescript lives. INDIA
TODAY's Special Correspondent Neeraj Mishra finds out why.
Shailendra's
shirt tails are perpetually wet from keeping it in his mouth. He is an
eight-year-old vagrant child hanging out at the Bhopal Railway Station.
His friends Parvez, Gudiya and Munna share his predicament of living without
parents, home, food and a warm bed. Another thing common among them is
the wet shirt or skirt tail which they keep chewing. Most passengers going
in and out of the busy railway station would scarcely notice the scrawny,
dirty kids with just another obnoxious habit. But these kids are addicts.
What they are chewing is not just cloth but Bonefix solution spread on
it. Bonefix is used mostly by cobblers in fixing soles to shoes. It's
now helping them fix souls to body. Or perhaps it's the most they can
do to cope with the pain of their growing years. There are about two dozen
homeless children in the under-10 age group who hang around the railway
station. Not all of them are orphans but even if their parents are alive
they can hardly provide them food or shelter.
Gudiya is only six and her younger sister who tails her everywhere is
only four. Their parents live in a low-lying slum somewhere near the station
but for days the two girls never see their parents. For days they don't
even go home. They eat what they can scavenge at the platform and sleep
anywhere they can spread their slender frame. The group of children works
and earns an average of Rs 20 each a day selling bottles, plastic bags
or simply begging. Of this they spend Rs 5 on a tube of Bonefix freely
available at any general store. They spread the glue on a piece of cloth
or their shirt tails and put it in their mouth. Then they inhale deeply.
The pungent smell hits their head and makes them groggy.
"Jab jor se saans kheenchtey hain to sar mein jhunjhuni si hoti
hai. Uske bad badhiya neend aati hai, nable to tell is where they
picked up this habit of ingesting "saleshun" as they call it.
His friends also don't know but Munna says that he simply saw his peers
doing it, tried it and became an addict. It appears that there are several
shops selling the glue outside the station and their average daily sale
is at least two dozen tubes. Some auto drivers suspect that one of the
shop-owners might be behind introducing the children to this habit. The
police is not sure but it has also not investigated this angle. They have
tried to chase away the children from the station area, at times they
have even arrested them and sent them to juvenile homes, but they keep
coming back. After all, there is nothing illegal about selling glue or
even smelling it.
Law has its hands tied. Bonefix smells a bit like Quickfix and such other
adhesive tubes that are available in the market. It is perhaps the cheapest.
Its chemical contents have not been analysed to find out what causes the
drowsiness but glues normally contain some petro byproducts which may
be inducing the sleep.
What is causing concern is that the habit could worsen and lead to more
severe addictions as the children grow up. Several older children around
on the platform in their teens have become "smackiyas". Bonefix
is just the first step step towards a giant hell. Vivek Johri, a senior
IPS officer, has, however, tried something different. Alongwith some of
his fellow officers and likeminded people, he has opened a shelter for
such children close to the station itself. "It is painful to see
them waste away like this simply because there is no remedy in law. We
try and motivate these children to come and live in the shelter, lead
a normal life,'' he says. His shelter — Nitya Seva — run only
on funds raised through private efforts, provides food, bath, bed and
medical check-ups to children who are free to come in and go out any time
they feel like. The timings and rules have been kept flexible so that
chidlren don't feel imprisoned and can exercise choice. Some 40 arate
shelters and now Johri has arranged to send them to school.
Some of the kids at the station have been to Nitya Seva shelters and have
run away because they were unable to procure their daily fix. Some others
also don't know about the shelter and can't believe that someone would
offer free food and bed with no strings attached. Their years on the platform
have taught them only one thing: there are no free meals in life, so never
trust anyone. Only in their daily fix they repose their trust and despite
Johri's efforts some of them will waste away. It will require several
Johris and that's a tall order. Till then it's Bonefix.
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