Noble Initiative! This NGO Rescues Lost Children On Railway Platforms From Abuse, Starvation & Trafficking

When little Vijay couldn't find his way home, he ended up working at a hotel where he was abused every day till he thought of running away and followed the railway route to Ghaziabad railway station. He could have also landed up in the hands of dangerous abusers and lost his way forever, but Railway Children India- the largest NGO working for children and their network of outreach volunteers- saved Vijay. They tracked his village and reunited him with his family after seven years of leaving his home.

Every 5 minutes, children like Vijay take railway routes and arrive alone in India's railway stations and are at risk at a railway platform. While less than 50 per cent of them are found, rescued or united with their family, the rest fall into the hands of abusers, where they either get trafficked, sexually exploited, die or disappear forever.

India's Lost Children

Railway Children India's 24 hrs outreach teams recognise children who are alone and at risk at railway stations and send them to shelter homes that provide short-term accommodation for kids with nowhere safe to stay and long-term care for those whose families could not be tracked. These children are offered psychosocial support to help them recover from the trauma, medical assistance, education, vocational training until they trace their families.

The NGO is in partnership with India's largest online giving platform GiveIndia, which aims to raise Rs 60 lakh for this initiative. Through this crowdfunding initiative, Railway Children India can expand its reach and take more children back to their homes' safety and provide them with trauma counselling, nutrition, education, and shelter.

"Every eight minutes, a child in India goes missing, and less than 50 per cent of these children are found. They come to station platforms where they may be abused and exploited. The forms of abuse they face include physical, sexual and emotional. This pushes many children into deep trauma and pain," Navin Sellaraju, Founder, Railway Children India, told The Logical Indian.

RCI, which works in nine major railway stations across six states of the country, provides short-term care in its shelter homes where the child can sleep, get nutritious food, train counsellors, and help them recover from trauma.

During this period, the organisation tries to locate these children's families and reunite many of them. Many of these children left home searching for employment or to escape from poverty or other abusive situations. Every child that is reunited with their family is given follow up support for at least a year, and families are counselled, too, to try and ensure circumstances at home don't prompt them to leave again.

"For children whose families we cannot trace, we take the children to long-term care homes where they can stay safe, get educated and live decent lives while the efforts to reunite them with their families continue," Sellaraju said, adding that many children flee their homes because of poverty, violence or other forms of abuse.

He explained that the children are provided with psychosocial support, medical assistance, education, and vocational training until their families are traced or become adults.

Helped 10,000 Children So Far

Ever since it was founded in 2013, RCI has helped restore around 10,000 children to their families, and over 12,000 of them have been saved from immediate dangers. Nearly 500 kids have been referred to long term care homes.

"We rescue around 1300 children every month. Especially during the lockdowns, the cases of runaway kids had soared, with most of them between the age of 12 to 16 years, which has increased the urgency for rescue and protection. The sooner we reach these children, the higher the chances of rescuing them from exploiters and traffickers," Sellaraju said.

In addition, to make the Indian railway stations safe for children, RCI has trained over 17,000 railway officials, including Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP), station superintendents, station masters and commercial staff, on child protection issues and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for children coming in contact with Indian Railways.

Also Read: 'Teachers Do Not Get Paid Well': Heartfelt Story Of Bengaluru Auto Driver Who Used To Be An English Lecturer