Railway station funds to help rescued kids
CHENNAI: To ensure that missing children rescued at railway stations are given proper care and protection, the Railway Board has ordered station masters and directors to make use of station imprest to meet their expenses.
The order was issued by the Railway Board on Friday in the backdrop of the suggestions put forward by various non-governmental organisations at the recent state-level conclave conducted in Uttar Pradesh on child protection.
Quoting the standard operating procedures issued in 2015 by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), the Railway Board in its order has said, “The station master will be permitted to use the station imprest for providing meals, taking photographs of the child by the RPF, meeting medical expense, if any, production of child before the child welfare committee by the RPF through an NGO at the child help desk and other sundry incidental expenses”.
The children are provided basic care at A1 grade (NSG 1) stations such as Chennai Central, Egmore, Coimbatore and Madurai, which have child help desks run by authorised NGOs. Through NGOs, the rescued children are sent to the child welfare committee (CWC) or parents.
At stations which do not have designated child help desks, however, the RPF hands over the children to the child welfare committee through station master.
According to volunteers, who work with NGOs at stations in Vellore and Salem districts, station masters refuse to provide medical assistance. “A five-year-old rescued boy in Salem suffered from asthma and needed urgent medical treatment. But when we approached the station master, we were told that station funds were not allowed for this purpose,” recalled a volunteer.
However, a few station masters say they are unable to spend money on rescued children as their expenses are not getting refunded. “The divisional accounts department never approves the claims for rescued children under the station imprest. We bear the expenses in smaller stations,” said a station master.
Short file
Runaway children rescued at stations often suffer from
ill-health and starvation
Chennai, Egmore, Madurai, Coimbatore and Tiruchy have dedicated child help desks run by NGOs
At smaller stations, children are not given proper care
Railway Board advises station masters to use station imprest to take of care of the runaway children
The A1 grade station masters have a fixed sum of up to 1 lakh in the station imprest
Other station masters have empowerment ranging from 50,000 to 20,000
a month