To ensure that children who run away from their homes or are trafficked can be reunited with their families, the Railway Ministry might soon create a website with pictures and details of children who are found or rescued at railway stations and trains.
About 200 child care kiosks are also planned across major railway stations in the country that will be nodal centres to help rescued children.
One of the first of these was inaugurated at the New Delhi Railway Station on Wednesday by Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu and Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi.
Both the ministers also launched ‘Posters for Child Protection’ during the event and these posters, meant to create awareness among passengers, will be put on each of the 50,000 coaches that Indian Railways operates.
“The kiosks are being put up primarily to help children who either run away from homes or are trafficked, mainly from the eastern part of the country or Nepal who land up in Delhi,” said Arun Arora, Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi Division, Northern Railway.
“About 20 such kiosks will come up in Delhi Division alone, the first being at New Delhi railway station. In 2014-15, we have rescued 1,711 such children from Delhi,” he said.
Railways has also started a helpline where people can call to inform about children they find loitering in the trains or stations.
“Any passenger who sees a child loitering around can bring the child to the kiosk, which is being manned by NGOs 24X7, besides RPF personnel and our commercial staff. The kiosks will serve as an interface between the parents of the children or childcare centres if parents are not available,” Mr. Arora said.
“The posters were released by both the Honourable Ministers to involve public and generate awareness. The posters contain instructions on what to do if they find a child,” he said. He said that Mr. Prabhu instructed that Railways create a website where pictures of all children rescued at station are put up and link it with a similar one already being operated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development – khoyapaya.gov.in
20 kiosks will come up in Delhi Division alone, the first at New Delhi railway station
