HYDERABAD: Over 200 employees from the South Central Railways were trained in dealing with ‘Children in contact with Railways’ on Wednesday at the Rail Nilayam. The workshop resource persons from NCPCR and NGO’s like Save the Children and Railway Children India explained the procedures to be followed by the various frontline staff in dealing with abandoned, missing and trafficked children who find themselves in one way or the other at the Railway Station.
“We recognise that railways is a key link in saving these children who every hour land up at one station. We at SCR want to make this our moral responsibility of not just the Station Master, RPF or GRP, but each and every employee of SCR,” said Vinod Kumar Yadav, general manager, SCR. As a step two to this process, they plan to conduct a ‘Training of Trainers’ to percolate the SOPs to all 627 stations.
Data reveals every 5 minutes a child arrives alone at a major railway station and if not rescued then may wander into wrong hands. Speaking at the event, NCPCR’s senior Technical expert, Shaista K Shah added though these Standard Operating Procedure was designed in 2015, it failed to reach most stations and so they found the need to introduce it as a manual where each officers role is defined.
Rail infra is our top priority, says Gohain
Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said that there is a special focus on the development of infrastructure by Indian Railways. Addressing a gathering in the city on Wednesday, the minister said the rapid pace of development will bring significant improvements to rail transportation in the country. He inaugurated a whole host of initiatives Wednesday.
Projects inaugurated
Only 4 stations equipped with child protection
Only four of the 627 railways stations have put in place the Standard Operating Procedures that need to be followed when a ‘child comes in contact with the railways’, even though about 1,000 land up across the zone annually. The four stations are Secunderabad, Kacheguda, Tirupati and Vijayawada and though these are major stations in the zone where majority of the children are found alone, experts opine that many more critical stations need to be covered.