KOCHI: While the alleged trafficking of nearly 600 children from Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal to orphanages in Kerala has shocked the State’s social consciousness, the number of cases registered by the Railway Police over the past two years indicates that trafficking of children by train is not rare in the State.
According to officials of the Railway Police, a case of child trafficking was registered at the Kozhikode railway station two years ago. At least 80 children, most of them girls, were brought to orphanages in Kozhikode by the Okha-Ernakulam Express. “The children were handed over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Kozhikode, after the Railway Police registered a case against the agents who had brought them,” said a sub-inspector of the Railway Police, who was on duty when the incident occurred.
“The children, who were below 13 years of age, were brought to Kozhikode from Gujarat. After examining the children and registering a case against the agents, we handed them over to the CWC. Our action was on the basis of a tip-off,” said the official.
Kozhikode Child Welfare Committee chairperson Sreela Menon told Express that the girls were first put in a children’s home, and then they were handed over to their relatives in Gujarat.
“Hordes of children are brought every year to orphanages in Kerala. However, the State has become more sensitive to such incidents, after the introduction of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act - 2013 (CLA). Until last year, child trafficking was not taken as seriously as it is done today,” said Sreela. Under the Thiruvananthapuram railway division, at least two to three incidents of child trafficking have been registered. The children were brought for child labour.
“In the Thiruvananthapuram railway division, incidents of trafficking of children for child labour is very common. Meanwhile, at least three isolated cases of child trafficking were registered in Ernakulam and Kottayam. In one case, around 15 children were brought to Kottayam from Karvar in Karnataka through agents, for child labour. In another incident, children were brought from Yelapur in Maharashtra,” said police officials.
“The Ernakulam Railway Police had registered a case against agents who transported around 15 children from Bijapet in Karnataka. Later, the children were sent back to their home town. However, none of these cases were registered under the new section of the IPC. They were booked under the Juvenile Justice Act,” said P Vinod, a sub-inspector of the Ernakulam Railway Police.
According to sources in the Police Department, the Railways were generally apathetic towards transportation of children by train, even though they are transported in bulk.
“As long as the agents pay for the train tickets, railway officials are not concerned about anything else. In the latest incident, the agents had paid Rs 1.8 lakh for booking tickets for the 600-odd children who were brought from North India,” said sources in the Railways.