‘Dad, when I grow up I’m going to buy a car that no one in the whole street owns. I will make a separate room for both of you on the ground floor’ – cried a 39-year-old man and his 34-year-old wife while sitting in their one-room makeshift house in Vasant Vihar, recalling their son’s dream. for them.
Wrapping his arms around his wife’s side, the man said, “Our son wanted to give us good facilities… he had such a great idea at such a young age…”
On Tuesday, their 12-year-old son was taken to Fortis Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. Her classmate, another 12-year-old, has been arrested for hitting her after touching her shoulder.
The boy’s mother, wearing a red sweater holding a phone with her son’s picture in one hand, held her son’s white-checked shirt close to his chest with the other. Not a single photo of our child without our mother (Without his mother, there is no photo of our son…) He was my son. Look how beautiful he was… This was our family picture,” she cried.
The plumber father looked tired after the last rites. He said the boy had to apply for admission to his son’s school three times before getting a seat under the EWS quota. “My elder son couldn’t get in, so I got him admitted in another school in a general category seat; we had to pay Rs 5,000…”
The couple claimed that no school teacher could visit them.
“Even for a small problem, the school usually informs the parents immediately. For something so big, no one said a word to us, they (authorities) took my son to the hospital… and we (the parents) were not told,” the father said.
The principal of the school refused to speak on the matter despite repeated attempts to contact him. An official communication from the principal to parents on Tuesday read: “…police officials are investigating the case. The school has been providing all kinds of support and assistance during the ongoing investigation. The school will remain closed until further notice.” Classes will continue in online mode, he said.
The previous day, some residents of Kusumpur Hills, where the family lives, staged a protest outside the school and accused the police of beating them. “Instead of ensuring justice, the police brutally lathi-charged the Dalit residents of Kusumpur…,” said a statement by the All India Central Trade Union Council, which was part of the protest.
However, police officials denied the allegations and said they were making all efforts to complete the investigation.
Aparajita Gautam, president of the Delhi Parents’ Association, insisted that the rest of the students in the class should also be counselled. “Many parents claimed that the classes in the school will not be attended to… there should be no manipulation of the story. According to the Delhi Education Department’s order of 2017 there should be school safety committees. However, no information is available to us about the existence of such committees.”
Back at the family home, the parents continued to look at photos of their son. “Every morning, I would drop both my sons off at school before going to work… my youngest would not walk to school without saying goodbye to me and seeing me leave,” she cried.