“I am very happy to be back at home…. I had missed my family very much.”

“I love everything about home.., my mother, my grandmother and my father and also my brother and sisters. I love all of them,” says Sonu.

Sonu was first contacted in the early hours of a wintry morning at New Delhi railway station. He was cold, tired and hungry. The workers noted that he was wearing a school uniform. They encouraged him to come to the shelter and also offered him food.

Initially Sonu did not speak much and would stay quietly at the shelter. However the outreach workers would keep visiting him regularly. Gradually Sonu started sharing details about his family. The workers realized that Sonu hailed from a small village in Uttar Pradesh (northern state of India). He had a large family and lived with his parents, grandmother and five siblings. Sonu loved his family. His only complaint was that his parents would beat him and his siblings many times and he was very scared of the same. One day on his way to school, Sonu had a tussle with a classmate and injured him. Afraid that his father would beat him up for this mistake, Sonu ran away from home and boarded the first train at the station.

The outreach workers spend many days counseling Sonu. They made him realize about the hardships children face when they are living at the station and the difficulties that he himself had gone through. They also encouraged Sonu to remember the good times he had at his home with his family and how much they cared about him. Finally, Sonu took the decision to return back to home.

Sonu is now living at his home and attending school regularly. “I am very happy to be back at home. For the first few days it was good to stay at the station. I could go anywhere I want but it was also difficult. I missed my family very much. I know they missed me too,” says Sonu gleefully.