Since 2024, the RPF has rescued 278 children from the KSR City Railway Station. Pic for representation.
Credit: DH Photo
Since 2024, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has rescued 278 vulnerable children at the Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) City Railway Station. In the same period, 177 were rescued at Yeshwantpur, 84 at Bengaluru Cantonment, and 40 at Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal at Baiyappanahalli. Most were boys; nearly four times as many as girls.
As per reports, two children missing from Arookutty in Kerala were found at a city railway station in a joint operation by the Bengaluru police and the RPF last week.
RPF’s Operation Nanhe Farishte rescues and reunites children in need of care and protection. An RPF official says most cases involve child labour, followed by runaways. Four cases of kidnapping have been reported at the KSR station this year, all involving minor girls who had left their homes in Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, and Karnataka with boys. Though parents had filed these as kidnappings, he said they turned out to be “love cases”. No child trafficking incidents have been reported recently.
“Most child labour cases involve children from north and northeast India. They are 12 to 18 years old, and come with their parents’ permission. They look for work in factories or as security guards and painters. Runaway cases, on the other hand, largely involve children from Karnataka in the 14-18 age group. They leave after disputes at home over studies, or out of curiosity to see Bengaluru city, its cricket stadium and festivals. Some come looking for jobs in garment factories and hotels without informing anyone,” he added.
RPF teams identify vulnerable children by observing body language — those looking nervous, forlorn, or hesitant to share contact details of their parents. Food vendors, porters, ticket inspectors and auto drivers are also trained to spot such children in and around railway stations, and report such cases. The watch is intensified when trains arrive.
On being rescued, some children request not to be sent back. “Girls say they are overburdened with household work,” said a child rescue specialist at Yeshwantpur station. Such children often carry a small bag with a few clothes. “But recently, a girl travelling with a boy from Pune was found carrying over Rs 2 lakh in cash. They had pawned a mangalsutra. The girl said they were out travelling, but the boy claimed she had forced him to accompany her. They had also gone to Tirupati,” he said.
In another recent case at Yeshwantpur station, a night duty staffer, acting on an alert by the control room, found a minor couple travelling from Telangana.
Helplines to report vulnerable children
1098 (Childline); 139 (Railway enquiry); 112 (Emergency).