For 15-year-old Manoj*, an hour-long solo train journey from Sampla in Haryana to Old Delhi Railway Station was less scary than the prolonged trauma he experienced at his elder sister’s home, where he was assaulted and ill-treated.
“After my sister got married and shifted to Sampla, she asked me to leave my hometown Siwan in Bihar, and join her. She promised she would help me to study. When the schools shut down due to COVID-19, she forced me to do household chores and thrashed me frequently; she also used foul words,” a visibly frightened Manoj told The Hindu, hours after he was rescued by NGO workers from platform number 8 of the station.
When things became unbearable for Manoj at his sister’s home, he bought a ticket and boarded the early-morning train to Delhi. “I have come here to study, I don’t want to work; I have escaped from my sister’s clutches,” he said.
Another teenaged boy, Sunil* was also rescued from Old Delhi Railway Station after he got off a train coming from Bihar’s Katihar. He arrived on February 1 with a wish to learn some trade. “I did not inform my parents before leaving. I do not want to return to return home. I want to train myself and earn a living,” said the 13-year-old first-timer to the city. His father is a farmer and mother a housewife.
Like Manoj and Sunil, several minor children are rescued from Delhi’s five major railway stations daily. Most of them land up at these stations to escape poverty or torture at home, or to flee inhumane working conditions in other cities, or to save themselves from being trafficked. They all come to the Capital, dreaming of good jobs and better living conditions.
The New Delhi and Old Delhi Railway Stations account for the bulk of the rescued children who arrive mostly from the states of Bihar, Assam, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
Hit by COVID
According to estimates, before the pandemic broke out in the country, in March 2020, at least 200 children were rescued every month from the city’s railway stations by NGO workers who coordinate with the Railway Police Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) in the operations. But COVID-19 has led to an increase in the number of children rescued, NGO workers say, adding that an additional 50 children are being rescued every month from Capital’s railway stations for the past two years.
Aman*, 13, and Raju* 17, who were rescued recently from platform number 15, were waiting to board a train at New Delhi Railway Station for Bihar, from where they would have boarded a train to Siliguri, to reach their home in Jaigaon in Assam.
Both had escaped from their workplace, a restaurant in Nagrota in Jammu. They had worked there for a month without being paid the full salary and were beaten up by their employer when they asked for their wages.
“A man in our village took us to Jammu convincing us that it will help us to build a brighter future. We believed him, but upon reaching Jammu we were saddled with cleaning jobs in the restaurant. When our employer refused to pay the full wage and thrashed us, we ran away and got on to a train to Delhi,” Aman narrated the harrowing experience.
Abused, denied wages
A group of four children between 12 years and 15 years fled an eatery in Lucknow when they were denied their full salaries. They arrived in the capital on January 31 in search of work.
“We boarded a train from Chargao and came to Delhi to earn money. But after hunting for work throughout the day, we found none and decided to catch a train home,” said one of them. At the beginning of the new year, these boys had left their homes in Kanakpur, Uttar Pradesh, without informing their parents. They were rescued in the wee hours on February 1 from New Delhi Railway Station.
Several NGOs such as Salaam Baalak Trust, Railway Children and Prayas have their rescue teams deployed across all railway stations. Once rescued, a child is produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) which either sends the minor back to his or her parents after tracing them or to a shelter home.
Rescuing the children
Anjani Tiwari of Salaam Baalak Trust said trains are the most common modes of travel for runaway children. “Villages are now connected through rail and these children board with or without tickets, not knowing what awaits them next,” said Mr. Tiwari.
He said it was important to rescue such children as soon as they get off a train in Delhi. “Or else they get into petty crimes and rag picking to earn money and also get addicted to drugs,“ he added.
Mr. Tiwari said many of the rescued children refuse to reveal their personal details since they don’t wish to return their homes. They dream of pursuing further studies. “We counsel them and in case the parents are non-traceable, the children are kept in long-term home care and their education is taken care of,” he added.
Requesting anonymity, a rescue worker at Old Delhi Railway Station, told The Hindu that often porters, vendors and passengers alert them when they see a child roaming aimlessly on a platform or doing petty work. “We also get tip-offs that a particular train might have runaway children being trafficked to other cities,” he said.
A senior police officer said the RPF and GPF personnel keep a strict vigil on all platforms and the moment they receive information about runaway children, they swing into action to rescue and hand over the children to NGOs.
* - Names of all the children in this story have been changed
