In a major step to protect children, Western Railway’s Railway Protection Force (RPF) has rescued 487 children and reunited them with their family in the last seven months from January 2022 to July 2022. Prakash Butani – General Manager of Western Railway, commended their efforts and said that the RPF is whole-heartedly doing its social responsibility by understanding the problems of these children and helping them reunite with their families by counselling them. Butani also appreciated the RPF and frontline staff who are playing a vital role in identifying such critical cases with their intuitive understanding and prompt action as counselors.
According to Sumit Thakur – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, the RPF as part of Railways is playing an essential role in assisting the passengers travelling in railways and also provides help and rescue passengers specially women and children in need of care and protection. Under Operation “Nanhe Farishte”, 487 children who had run away from their homes, which included 313 boys and 174 girls were reunited with their families with the help of NGOs like Childline India Foundation, etc. Most of these young kids left their homes without informing their family members due to family issues or in search of a better life & glamour. These children were found roaming on platforms or in station premises or sometimes in trains by trained RPF personnel. When the children were reunited with their family, the parents and guardians expressed deep gratitude towards the railways for this noble deed. In the last seven months, 181 children were rescued from Mumbai Division, 63 from Vadodara Division, 80 from Ahmedabad Division, 102 from Ratlam Division, 52 from Rajkot Division and 09 children from Bhavnagar Division. It is pertinent to mention that in the year 2021, WR’s RPF in coordination with GRP and other frontline railway staff had rescued almost 600 children.
