Solace to runaway kids

By Manjunath Hadimani | NT

Over 4,800 children have been rescued in the last five years in an operation ‘Nanhe Farishteh’, which means ‘Little Angels’, initiated by South Western Railways (SWR) in 2017. The objective is to rescue and prevent trafficking of children and to lend a helping hand for the lost and runaway children.

The operation is carried out by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), a team which is trained in behavioural analysis and are also trained to identify victims of trafficking, traffickers, and children and women in distress through their body language.

When a RPF officer doubts someone, they approach the suspect and politely speak to them and ask a few questions, based on that the team judges whether to intervene or not.

After that they decide on what kind of the case it is - a lost and runaway case, where a child is in the train and their parents miss the train or the human trafficking case where there is child trafficking for labour, bonded labour, organ trade or something else.

Based on the preliminary assessment of the RPF, the rescued children are either sent back to their parents or if the child is without parents, they will be handed over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for further action. In case of trafficking, Government Railway Police (GRP) and local police will be informed to take the necessary action as per Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, Section 370 A of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Alok Kumar, Chief Security Commissioner, SWR said that when Nanhe Farishteh was started in 2017, it was limited to Bengaluru Railway station and later it was spread to other parts of SWR and Indian Railways. “The initiative has been a huge success. There are nominated NGOs by the Ministry of Women and Child Development only those NGOs are designated to carry the further steps after completing the essential formalities. The children will be under the observation of NGOs until their parents are tracked and handed over to them. In case the child is an orphan and couldn’t trace the parents, the CWC from that district will take further action,” said Alok Kumar.

He said Bengaluru has the highest number of cases as it is the main hub for the migrants in Karnataka.

There is a specific team of 10 members in Bengaluru Division including a Sub-Inspector, woman SubInspector, and eight staff members that travel across the designated trains in search of such suspicious activities. 

Apart from that, in all the eight stations under Bengaluru Division namely Bengaluru, Yeshwanthpur, Mandya, Bengaluru Cantonment, Baiyappanahalli, Bangarpet, Dharmapuri and Hindupur there is a team of four people who will be at the station including an Assistant SubInspector (ASI) and three staff members.

According to reports, Bengaluru Division alone has rescued 3,674 children as on May 4, 2022 since the launch of the campaign in 2017. It is said that most cases in SWR are registered at the Bengaluru Division.

The children rescued are from across India, and they mostly hail from Bihar, Karnataka, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh. There are at least 10 to 15 cases from Nepal every year.

Sanjeev Kishore, General Manager, SWR, said that the Railways is committed to ensure safety of children, especially on trains and in railway premises. In this regard, Nanhe Farishteh is a step forward to detect and prevent child trafficking.

Our officers, in particular the RPF, are involved in rescuing and re-uniting runaway or trafficked children. For the first time in Indian Railways, we have created a ‘Child Friendly’ space at Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) Bengaluru Station as a measure to provide relief to the kids. This is part of our commitment to make a safer and better society.

First of a kind
In a first of its kind in India the Bengaluru Railway Station On April 8, 2022 has introduced Kushi Hub, a child friendly space for rescued children to spend time. Earlier, the kids would be made to sit in either waiting rooms or Station Master’s Room, but this will be a more hospitable place.

There are two bunk beds for kids to sleep if rescue happens late at night. A play area, with indoor games, t