CAG reveals Rlys' insensitive handling of rescued kids
Shubhadeep Choudhury
New Delhi, December 25
The compliance and audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the Railways for the year ending March 2021, tabled in Parliament during the recently concluded winter session, brings to the fore the indifference with which the authorities handle children rescued at railway stations.
According to the report, separate spaces for rescued girls and boys were not provided at 114 stations of 16 zonal railways.
While separate areas for boys and girls was provided at 11 stations, the space was not sufficient in the case of three stations — Kalaburgi, Jaipur and Rourkela.
Citing a survey carried out by Delhi-based NGO “Railway Children India”, the report said every five minutes, a child arrives alone at major railway stations in India. They are often unaccompanied and vulnerable. Offenders use train stations for trafficking of children from remote parts of the country for labour, sexual exploitation etc.
The Ministry of Railways, with the support of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, has prepared and issued standard operating procedures for the Railways to ensure care and protection of such children in accordance with the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
At nine stations, it was found that the Ministry of Women and Child Development did not provide telephone facility at child help desks. At 16 stations, no woman member of the RPF, GRP or Railways staff was posted to help rescued girls.
At the Patna station, no woman RPF member was posted at night, the report said. The report added that 1,838 children rescued from 24 stations were not produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) within 24 hours, which is in violation of rules. “Such instances of directly handing over children to their parents indicated violation of the standard operating procedures as well as the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015,” the report added.
