Chennai: Railway Children India, an organisation states that a child arrives alone in railway platforms across India for every five minutes.
In order to help the railway officials in keeping track of the children at the stations, the NGO that works towards the safety of children along with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights recently came out with a guidebook for creating a child-friendly and protective environment for children at railway stations.
The book is followed by RPF officials as it illustrates measures and steps to ensure the safety of a child.
The guidebook brings out six major rules that includes creating awareness regarding child safety at railway stations, maintaining record of children who are found at the stations, referring children under the care and protection processes (JJ Act), operation of an NGO at the station, encouraging the station masters to form a child help group (CHG), setting up a child help desk (CHD).
The book further offers a set of guidelines that are to be followed by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel to ensure the safety of a child who is found in trains.
According to a data from UNICEF, about 11 million children live in the streets of India. These children have to fend for themselves against sexual abuse, human trafficking, etc. It is said railway stations are the most common sites where abandoned children are often found.
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