Unlike other children his age, four-year-old Suhas refuses to accept a bar of chocolate. He is intimidated by the sight of cars and cannot differentiate between genders.
Suhas was just 10 months old when his mother, Madhuri Mahadik, was sentenced to four years’ rigorous imprisonment for being part of an armed dacoit gang that targeted malls and cars in Nagpur.
Mahadik applied to the court seeking permission to take her son to the prison. She thought she would be able to take better care of him there. Unfortunately, the four-year-old has only seen the hard life of Yerwada prison ever since.
A prison is hardly the place for children to grow. Suhas is presently growing in the company of women prisoners; the only males he has seen are jail officials and cleaners.
“I play only with Rani, my friend,”he says. He hasn’t learnt to count nor does he know how to recite the alphabet. “The male officers are very strict. I don’t like them,” he complains.
Suhas, like the 70 other children in the prison, spends most of his time playing with or running around his mother.
“What is an apple?”he keeps asking, confused, when questioned: A for…? It’s not surprising when you consider that the only food he has eaten in his life is dal, rice and potato sabzi.
His elder brother Satish, 12, runs errands and contributes to the family’s monthly income. Satish dropped out of school after his mother was arrested. His father works as a peon in a local school.
“I miss my mother a lot. I cry every night. I want her to come home. But she never listens to me,”he says, oblivious of the gravity of the situation. “Once my mother returns, everything will be fine,” he beams.
All names have been changed
