Kolkata: The children of a slum at Anandapur in Kolkata who had lost their belongings in a devastating fire on February 25 had something to cheer about with the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) reaching out with relief material for children.
All 38 families, mainly domestic workers, drivers, vegetable vendors, etc became homeless within an hour with all their belongings, documents and other assets burnt to ashes with the entire slum being gutted. The children lost their school bags, books, shoes etc in the fire. The WBCPCR team handed over school bags and exercise books along with other essentials to the children. They still don’t have shoes, which the Commission has promised to look into. The Commission is working on how essential things like raincoats and umbrellas can be provided to them.
Presently, they are all living in a commune, having lost everything, cooking, eating and surviving together. When the Commission team was about to leave, the children thanked them with a song.
The blaze was doused after almost five hours and the Fire and Emergency Services had to use robots for fire fighting.
The robot went into the inaccessible pockets of the blaze relaying images through its thermal imaging cameras. The robot also detected if there was anybody trapped deep inside the blaze.