SHAHJAHANPUR: Himanshu Shukla was just nine years old in 1995 when he slapped a local boy named Kallu, also 9, in his native village of Satwa Bujurg under Powayan subdivision in Shahjahanpur district. While he does not remember why he slapped the boy, Shukla, now 31, often told people later that "on that very day" he realized that he had made a big mistake. He was right. More than two decades after the incident, Shukla has been punished by a juvenile court.Police had come to his house on the day of the incident itself to tell his parents that the 9-year-old had been booked under the SC/ST Act for assaulting a Dalit . They had detained him for a night but released him the next day. Nothing happened for more than 20 years. Now, though, Shukla has been held guilty by a juvenile court and “sentenced” to serve at a government-run community health centre (CHC) for a month as a "sweeper".On Monday, Shukla started his month-long punishment at a CHC in Powayan. “On December 15, the judge pronounced the sentence. I have been appointed as a sweeper and will be working here till January 25. I was born in a poor Brahmin family and my childhood was like that of any underprivileged child. Several years after the incident, I realized that I had been booked under IPC Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), along with the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Some people told me that I had to face action as BSP was in power then,” Shukla said on Tuesday, broom in hand, at the medical facility. "I didn’t even know what Dalit meant then.”Shukla added: "Over time I forgot the incident like a bad dream and continued with my life. I learnt driving, picked up a job, got married to my wife Renu in 2005 and had two children. Things were going on smoothly until 2011 when I received summons from a court that a chargesheet has been filed against me and I would have to face trial. With an income of Rs 200-250 per day, I faced many difficulties during the trial. After six years, someone advised me to accept my guilt and that is what I did. This is what my punishment was reduced to.”With a large part of his day (10 am to 2 pm) spent at the CHC, Shukla is finding it hard to sustain his family. “I am not able to do anything for my wife and children. I had borrowed Rs 4,000 from a friend to pay my lawyer and have to return the amount,” he rued. Shukla has also been asked to fill a personal bail bond of Rs 25,000.Superintendent of the CHC, Dr D R Manu, said, “We received instructions from the district probation officer to assign an appropriate job to him. Since Himanshu Shukla is illiterate, we asked him to clean the hospital.”