Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday proposed setting up an online registration programme in collaboration with the Women and Child Development Ministry to help parents trace their missing or runaway children rescued at railway stations.
“I suggest that we launch an online registration program under which pictures of children rescued from railway stations would be uploaded so that their parents can easily get to know about them and these children get united with their family at the earliest,” said Prabhu while inaugurating a booth where a lost child can seek help at the Platform No 1 of New Delhi Railway station. He was accompanied by WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi.
The initiative has been taken after the alarmingly increasing rate of missing children every six minutes in India and on an average 20 children a day in the National Capital. According to NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, over one lakh children go missing every year. The WCD Ministry recently launched a web portal — www.khoyapaya.gov.in — for people to directly report, track and upload information on missing children.
On the occasion, Maneka said a large number of children get kidnapped or run away from home, most of who take trains to end up in big cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi and get introduced to alcohol, drugs, tobacco and other bad habits.
“Some posters which have been released will be put up in railway stations and passenger bogies. They have the child helpline line number 1098 printed on them and anybody who finds a child alone, scared or in an uncomfortable situation with adults, they can report it on this number,” she said.
She said these posters and kiosks have been set up at 20 stations and the Government aims to set it up in 200 more stations and over the time in 12,000 stations across the country.
The Railway Minister further said the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel will be trained to deal with such rescued children. Seeking support of the people, Prabhu said it is also the responsibility of the society to ensure that the children do not get lost or run away from their homes.