A step too far

Budhia Singh's record-breaking run sets off a public debate involving the issue of child rights.

in Bhubaneswar

IT is early morning. A frail four-year-old boy is playing with a toy at the Orissa State Judo Association complex in Bhubaneswar. Taking a break, he starts explaining the toy's operation to his mother. When his mother shows little interest, the boy starts playing again, sucking his thumb at times. He is Budhia Singh, whose long-distance running has generated a nationwide debate.

Little Budhia, who seems to be unaware of the differences between his coach Biranchi Das and Orissa's Women and Child Development Minister Pramila Mallick, not to mention the debate itself, stays busy with the toy presented to him by the correspondent of a television channel. As he moves from one place to another with his toy in hand, three television camerapersons capture his every movement. The wonder boy, who made to it the record books by running 65 km in 7.02 hours from Puri to Bhubaneswar, seems to have got used to cameras, which have chased him since he came into the limelight in July last year.

Television cameras follow Budhia - they do so virtually everywhere he goes. When he is called to have breakfast along with other children at the Judo training centre, the cameras focus on him from different angles. After breakfast Das, who is also his foster father, takes him to the Gautam Nagar slum cluster in the city, where his earlier home is situated, on the request of the television crews. Such trips are arranged as and when television journalists from different parts of the country and abroad want him there for a few shots.

Often media correspondents ask the boy marathoner and his coach to repeat whatever they say or do. Innocent Budhia also obliges them when he is requested to re-explain the functioning of his toy to his mother. He even sings a few lines of the nursery rhymes taught to him in his new English-medium school.

May 2 was the day that Budhia made headlines across the world. But it was not the first time that he ran from Puri to Bhubaneswar. The coach claims that the boy had run between these two places as many as 10 times before, though the distances were always within 60 km. On many occasions, runs of varying distances at different locations were also organised by Das to satisfy television crews. It seems Das obliged virtually everybody who wanted to shoot Budhia running.

Budhia's previous runs in different parts of Orissa and in other States had earned him a reputation as a sports whiz-kid from Orissa. Despite reports criticising long-distance running by a boy so young, the public lapped up the media coverage and the felicitations. A beaming Das, with the lovable kid in his arms, was soon adorning stages across the State as every organisation tried to outdo the other in having him as the star attraction. Governor Rameshwar Thakur, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, several Ministers in the State and other dignitaries felicitated Das at many gatherings.

At this juncture, controversy erupted. The Orissa State Council for Child Welfare questioned Das for making the boy run long distances at a tender age. "The boy should not be subjected to severe physical exertion by being made to run long distances, and that too so frequently. This could prove disastrous for him," said Sanjukta Mohanty, Secretary of the Council. "If Budhia were Biranchi Das's own child, he would not make him run like this," she said.

Pramila Mallick's criticism against the coach soon followed: "Biranchi Das is using Budhia as a madari uses his performing monkey. The way the boy is being made to run is inhuman," she alleged.

Meanwhile, the Child Welfare Committee of Khurda district issued summons to Das asking him to appear before it to discuss the child's performance and future. Das, already peeved by the public criticism from Pramila Mallick and others, moved the Orissa High Court to challenge the summons.

As the High Court was preparing to act upon his petition, Das organised Budhia's most controversial run with support from the Central Reserve Police Force. With this race, the most ambitious thus far for the child prodigy, Das aimed to ensure Budhia's entry into the Limca Book of Records. Although he achieved his target, events spun out of his hands; Budhia failed to complete the 70 km target and the run ended at 65 km when he collapsed owing to sheer fatigue. The boy vomited at the hospital he was rushed to.

Many television channels showed special reports on Budhia's achievement as the youngest boy to run 65 km at one go, and he occupied space in newspapers and news portals. Only some reports, however, mentioned the exhaustion and vomiting that brought Budhia's run to an end. The next day, the National Human Rights Commission asked the Orissa government to furnish a report on the run. Everybody praised Budhia for creating a record, but Das got brickbats as well as bouquets.

On May 5, a police team reached the Judo Association premises and took the boy and Das to the government-run Capital Hospital, on the orders of the Child Welfare Committee. The boy was examined by a board of four doctors, including a specialist from the Sports Authority of India's Kolkata Centre, to ascertain his health condition.

In its report, the board said that Budhia should not be subjected to long-distance running as the risk of heat stroke increased in a child if it was allowed to run long distances. Budhia may also suffer growth retardation owing to damage at the growing ends of long bones and early onset of an osteoarthritis, which may cripple the child in future, the report said. "The child may also become a subject of burnt-out syndrome," the doctors said. They recommended proper training under a qualified coach to hone his talent.

Das, who described Pramila Mallick's stand and the Committee's concern as "harassment", retaliated by getting Budhia examined by a cardiologist working in a private hospital. The cardiologist's report termed the medical board's findings "premature" and suggested that the boy be allowed to run long distances.

Pramila Mallick, however, did not shrink away from fighting Budhia's case. The Child Welfare Committee had requested the government to ensure that long-distance running by the child is not organised again, she said, while warning that Das may face arrest if he makes Budhia run long distances. "Making Budhia run long distances might constitute an offence of cruelty to the child which was punishable under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000," she said.

Interestingly, while Das and Pramila Mallick were busy criticising each other, Sports and Youth Services Minister Debashis Nayak appeared to be supporting the coach. Nayak was present when the boy finished his 65 km run. He also attended the function organised to celebrate Budhia's latest achievement the next evening. For some time, nobody was able to understand whether the government was with the coach or against him. As confusion prevailed, Naveen Patnaik clarified that Budhia was an extraordinary child and his health should be monitored.

While government representatives fought with the coach, the debate raged in the public arena. A section of the public interpreted the government's moves as a crude attempt to nip young talent in the bud.

A little-known political outfit organised a rally against the government's attempts to prevent the coach from making the boy run long distances. Supporters of Das did not seem to realise that international norms prevent children below 12 years of age from participating in marathons, a distance of 42.195 km.

Pramila Mallick also had a section of the public and a few child rights activists supporting her stand. Upset with the defiant stand taken by Das, they clarified that they wanted Budhia to long-distance running, but not at this tender age.

They blamed Das for pushing the child too far at the cost of his health. Surprisingly, people on both sides of the divide were not ready to accept the fact that they all wanted Budhia to excel as a marathoner.

Even as the matter was pending before the High Court, the debate took new turns by the day with everybody trying hard to prove his or her point. But nobody attempted to find out what was going on in Budhia's mind.

Budhia's rise is truly a fairy tale come true. Das rescued him after his widowed mother Sukanti sold him to a vendor for Rs.800 and began training him in Judo. The discovery of his talent was equally astonishing. One day, Das asked Budhia to run in the training hall as punishment for using filthy words. He claimed that seven hours later, after he returned from some work, he found the boy still running. Realising the remarkable stamina of the indefatigable child, Das started training him as a runner.

Meanwhile, the cheerful Budhia has already featured in a music video encouraging him to run long distances and make Orissa proud. "I want to run to make my country feel proud of me," says the child.

No one says Budhia should not be groomed as a marathoner. The boy must get an opportunity to practise in peace under a qualified trainer. For this, the authorities, his coach and his mother must sit together and thrash out their differences.