Children help booth at railway station

Collector P.Umanath (second left) inaugurated a 'Children Help Booth' to be run jointly by the District Administration with the Childline and Don Bosco Anbu Illam at the Coimbatore Junction on Friday. Staion Manager C.Chandra Sekaran (third left) , Director of Don Bosco Anbu Illam Fr.U.Santhanam (left) and Chief Commercial Inspector L. Mohan (right) are in the picture. Photo: K. Ananthan

A help booth for children was inaugurated at the Coimbatore railway junction by Collector P. Umanath on Friday.

To be run jointly by the District Administration, ChildLine and the Don Bosco Anbu Illam, the booth is expected to be manned during peak hours of train arrival and departure.

This is the third one after the booths at Gandhipuram and Ukkadam. The next one is expected to come up at Singanallur bus stand in a few days.

According to Fr. U. Santhanam, Director of the Illam, the booth will be manned from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 a.m., from 12 noon to 3 p.m., and 6 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. “Most of the trains arrive and depart during these hours. For the rest of the time we are looking for support from college students or the Railway Protection Force personnel to man the booth,” he said.

The booth at Gandhipuram received nearly 75 children in a month, while the one at Ukkadam got about 25 rescued children. Fr. Santhanam expected the one at the railway junction to get the maximum number of rescued children.

He further added that they had roped in the help of vendors, porters, parcel service personnel and auto drivers at the station to help in reaching the abandoned children to the booth under the aegis of the Sharing Community Groups that has been initiated.