The safety of women and children remains a top priority for the government, especially when it comes to protecting vulnerable children found on railway premises as well as ensuring safe travel for single women, nationwide. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) is undertaking the responsibility to make sure that its premises are not used by human traffickers.
The RPF under the Ferozepur Division of the Northern Railways in Punjab, which is handling 262 railway stations in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and J&K is proactively following the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in preventing child trafficking on trains under Mission – Nanhe Farishtey and Operation – Aahat as well as in protecting single lady travellers under Operation- Meri Saheli.
Recently, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has assured the Railways that funding will not be a constraint for its efforts in making the Rail travel safe for women and children. More from our correspondent:
Railway Protection Force under Ferozepur Division has rescued 128 children till date, this year out of which 89 are boys and 39 are girls. Six of them have been reunited with their parents, whereas, others are handed over to NGOs who tries to find out their parents even after further handing them over to District Child Shelter Homes. Last year, the total number of children rescued was 134.
The RPF has also rescued 15 children from the clutches of human traffickers and had arrested four persons at Ludhiana Railway Station in March, last year.
Senior Divisional Security Commissioner of Ferozepur Division, Rishi Pandey told Akashvani that there are 15 Anti-Human Trafficking Units at various stations under the division which are doing their best to protect children. He assured that under Operation – Meri Saheli, RPF’s female staff immediately takes action to provide assistance to a single women traveler whenever asked for.
At the National level, under the ‘Operation Nanhe Farishte’, the RPF has rescued 57,564 children in last five years from trafficking. Out of them 18,172 were girls. Further the force has reunited 80 percent of these children with their families.
