147 Missing Kids Rescued by Tamil Nadu Railway Police

Madurai: Tamil Nadu Railway Police have rescued 147 missing children, mostly boys, from 13 districts in southern and central Tamil Nadu between April 2014 and June 2015.

"Most of these children ran away from home unable to take the parental pressure to excel in studies," said K Rajavel, Additional Deputy Superintendent of Tamil Nadu Railway Police, Trichy district, after launching the programme "Operation Muskaan" at Madurai Junction station on Tuesday to solve child missing cases.

Rajavel said nearly 95 per cent of students run away from the house because the parents put undue pressure on them to study.

"These students are sensitive. Many of them left the house due to sudden provocation when the parents scolded them repeatedly," he said.

Most of these children were rescued from 22 major railway stations such as Madurai, Dindigul, Tanjore, Nagapattinam and Tirunelveli.

"Out of 102 boys traced from April 2014 to March 2015, we have reunited 45 with their parents. We have sent the remaining 57 boys to hostels as nobody came forward to take them back," Rajavel said, adding that most of the missing children were in the 10-17 age group.

Explaining the background of missing children from Madurai, a senior railway police officer said most of the children rescued were students of class 9 and class 10 when they ran away from the home because of parental pressure.

Madurai Railway police station sub-inspector N Nagarani said all the students were from rural areas like Peraiyur and Melur in Madurai district and many were also from Virudhunagar district. 
"As we also receive complaints about child trafficking and forcing children into begging, we register all the missing children cases and search for them," she said.

F Joseph Stephen, child helpline co-ordinator who also took part in the programme, requested police to share the missing children details so that the child helpline could to trace the children.

Citing an example, he said, "A week ago, we rescued a 10 year old boy from Madurai Junction station who belongs to Maharashtra and speaks only Hindi. When we counselled him, he said he was forced into homosexuality when he stayed for four days at the railway station," Stephen said.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com