UP kids carry the dead for a few hundred rupees

Unusual errand

In an age when they should be carrying books, they were made to carry the dead.

Children between 10 and 12 years are being used by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Mughalsarai railway station in UP’s Chandauli district to carry bodies from platforms to the railway hospital.

Four children were spotted carrying the body of a passenger from the station to a hospital on Thursday last week. The deceased, yet to be identified, was poisoned by robbers. Police said the robbers allegedly befriended the passenger before feeding him food laced with chemicals.

The passenger was found dead in a Bihar-bound train. The children were paid a few hundred rupees for carrying the body.

“We often get Rs 200 to Rs 300 to carry bodies. Many of us do it to earn some money,” said a child who carried the body.

GRP personnel and railway officials find nothing wrong in using kids for such work.
“It’s a common practice here as we have no other option,” said a GRP constable posted at Mughalsarai station.

Even senior officials know about the practice.

“The railway police has no facilities to carry bodies from the station to hospital. They must have hired children as a stopgap arrangement,” said a senior railway official.

A large number of passengers fall prey to the jeherkhuran gangs — robbers who poison people — in the eastern parts of the state.

The number of victims increase sharply during festive seasons as migrants from UP and Bihar travel in large numbers to villages from metros, such as Surat and Ludhiana. These passengers also carry a lot of cash and they become easy targets.