JOIN USWomen and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has initiated measures to help the lakhs of trafficked and abandoned children who take shelter at and around railways stations across the country.
Her ministry has formulated an elaborate plan to provide assistance in association with the Indian Railways to such children. While a set of special operating procedures (SOPs) has been developed for the Railways to ensure care and protection of such children, various non-government organisations (NGOs) are being roped in to help authorities restore and rehabilitate these youngsters.
Working with the Railways, NGOs will help these children go back home. They will also arrange for these children's rehabilitation with the help of the authorities concerned.
“There are at least 5-6 lakh children who either use the Railways or arrive on railway stations. They are either runaway or abandoned or trafficked, and are in need of assistance,” said Gandhi while inaugurating a conference organised to deliberate on “Protecting the Rights of Vulnerable Children in Contact with Railways”.
The conference was organised here by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on its eighth foundation day on Thursday. At the conference, Gandhi said the SOPs, to be implemented to care and protect abandoned and trafficked children, had been developed jointly by her ministry and the Railways.
“Twenty railway stations have already started implementing these SOPs,” she said, calling the move a “historic moment” in the field of child welfare. Elaborating on the plan, she said Child Help Desks, kiosks and booths with telephone facility will be set up at railways stations with the Railways' help. Anyone can help children found in distress by dialling the child helpline 1098.
The minister used the opportunity to appeal to NGOs to come forward and partner with “more and more such railway stations” for restoration and rehabilitation of such children.
She also urged train passengers and others to alert the authorities if they came across any child needing help.
“A large awareness campaign is being launched for this by the NCPCR, consisting of signages in coaches, announcements and other audio-video material,” she said, adding, “One lakh such signages will be put in coaches.”