Itahari, June 8 :

Thirteen-year-old Shanti Bishwokarma is all alone and helpless. Though she had been studying in class five earlier, she has now stopped going to school due to lack of money to buy text books and pay the tuition fees.

“Who will bear the expenses for my studies when I have no place to live and its tough managing two square meals a day,” Shanti says.

Her father died just nine days after her birth and her mother left her and married another man. Shanti then lived with her maternal grandparents. Though her maternal uncle was very fond of her, he went missing in the conflict. Deepak Bishwokarma was arrested by security personnel on May 27, 2001 from his residence at Baklauri-4, Sunsari, locals say. Shanti’s grandparents Bikul Das Bishwokarma and Parvati fell ill soon after their son, the only bread winner in the family, suddenly went missing.

Bikul Das died on January 17, 2005, while Parvati died after 18 days.

Now, Shanti is the only person to look after the house. She has not the faintest idea why the security personnel arrested her uncle who used to work in a Panchyat primary school. The government has not yet made Deepak’s status public.

Whenever Shanti sees a lean and thin man from behind, she approaches him in a hope that he might be her lost uncle. However, she starts sobbing when she finds out that he is not her Deepak uncle.

“Whenever I’m alone at home, I keep on thinking about my dear uncle who used to love me so much,” Shanti says.