For one family, hope turns to despair in three hours
NEW DELHI: For three hours, the parents of Garima Chauhan, a seven-year-old girl who was injured Thursday morning’s accident, clung on to hope as they searched various hospitals.
By the time they finally traced Garima to a Punjabi Bagh hospital, she was breathing her last.
Garima’s father, Sandeep Chauhan, had learnt about the accident over the phone. “Initially I thought that she was not travelling in that van. So, after visiting the accident spot and not finding my daughter, I rushed to her school. When I couldn’t find her there, I began searching hospitals,” said Sandeep.
Sandeep and his fa mily searched Lok Nayak Hospital, AIIMS, Sushruta Trauma Centre and a private hospital – the three hospitals where t he injured children had been rushed to. “Finally I got to know that she had been admitted to a private hospital in Punjabi Bagh. When I reached there, I learnt she was critical. Before the doctors would allow me to see her, she was dead,” said Sandeep.
An employee at a private firm and a resident of JJ Colony in Keshavpuram, Sandeep and his wife had dreamt of a bright future for their daughter when she got admission to Kendriya Vidyalaya in Keshavpuram.
“We made sure she focused only on her studies. She was a bright student, who got a B grade in her Class two exams. Sometimes, she would say she wanted to become a doctor. At other times she wanted to be a police officer,” said Garima’s mother, Aarti.
Like most others, Garima’s parents believed their daughter was travelling with just seveneight other children in the van. “When the cab would arrive to pick her up or drop her home, it would have just six-seven children. Only after the accident we got to know of the overloading,” said Chauhan. Many parents said that they had never had time to check issues such as overloading because of their work life. “I leave for work at 5am, before my seven-year-old son Vansh leaves for school. I was just happy that he gets to attend school,” said Pawan Kumar, a sanitation worker with Indian Railways.
At the time of the accident, there were 18 children packed in the van. The parents paid anywhere between ₹400 and ₹600 as monthly charges for the privately-hired school van. Garima had been travelling in the van for two years. “We thought that the driver would ensure safety of children,” said Annu Parcha, grandfather of a 14-year-old injured girl, Rishika.
Some parents said that they had objected to the overloading and were provided a separate cab. “They paid ₹200 extra every month for the luxury. But my parents couldn’t afford it,” said Ganesh Devender, a 14-year-old boy, who travelled in the same van, but had skipped school on Thursday because of fever.