JAGATSINGHPUR:  A 10-year-old boy, who was chained and confined in a room by his family for seven years, was rescued by the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) officials on Friday. The boy, Sambit Nayak of Bakharabad village in Balikuda, has been admitted to the district headquarters hospital (DHH) for treatment.

As per reports, the poverty-stricken family had kept Sambit chained in a room after he started behaving abnormal and bit other children in 2012. His father Babaji Nayak had first admitted him to DHH for treatment but there was no improvement in his condition. As there was no psychiatry specialist in the DHH, Babaji was asked to take him to Bhubaneswer or Cuttack for specialised treatment.

The boy received treatment at Sishu Bhawan and SCBMCH in Cuttack, but there still was no sign of improvement.The doctors prescribed him medicines worth `5000 per month. Unable to spend the sum on Sambit’s treatment, the parents have been either chaining him or fastening his hands with rope in a room for the past seven years. “He (Sambit) will behave violently if I free him. I do not have any option other than confining him in a room,” said his mother.

Babaji, who ekes livelihood as a daily wager, said, “I have only four decimal of agriculture land. It is very difficult to sustain our four-member family with this meagre means. Due to lack of money, I even failed to complete my IAY house.”District Child Protection Officer Udaya Nath Swain said on being informed, the officials rescued the mentally-ill boy and admitted him to the DHH for treatment. Similarly, `5000 has been released from Red Cross fund to his family for medical expenses, he added and assured of initiating proper measures for the welfare of the boy.