The madrasa staff had chained the boy to a bench to keep him from going home.

BHOPAL: It was 12 noon on Sunday when locals spotted two boys carrying a bench, trying to run away. When they approached the children they found that the elder of the two was chained to the bench. During counseling it was found that the madrasa staff had chained the boy to a bench to keep him from going home. The two children aged 10 and 7 were taken to Ashoka Garden police station where the Childline team reached for their counseling.

"The children are very active and they used to feel homesick. The two had earlier gone home without informing the madrasa because they missed their families. As it was Sunday and the madrasa staff suspected that the two will run away again, they tied the elder one to a classroom bench with an iron chain in his foot. As the two don't like staying there, they somehow managed to pick up the bench and escape", said SHO Ashoka Garden police station Umesh Yadav .

Director Childline Archana Sahaye told TOI that the police informed the Childline after which the team reached the police station for counseling.

"There is no monitoring authority for madrasas and we are getting a lot of cases of children who don't wish to stay in the Madarsa. We need to take these cases seriously", she said.

The SHO further said that the madrasa had recently started the hostel facility and as the two kids belong to poor families their parents sent them to study and learn at the madrasa with arrangements for their food and shelter.

"The father of the elder boy is an iron-smith who takes up work as a daily wager while the parents of the 7-year-old are separated and the mother has moved in her maternal home. She got him enrolled in the madrasa as she also works as a maid and doesn't earn enough to raise him. But the two boys feel homesick and said they they didn't want to go back. We also found that there were 200 children studying in the private madrasa out of which 22 live in the residential campus of the minority school", said Yadav.

As the case revealed a violation of child rights, an FIR is being filed by the police against the madrasa. The process of FIR is underway.

