Ramu's story

When our team found 14-year-old Ramu he told us an elaborate story explaining why he was wandering around at Ghaziabad station alone in the evening.

He wouldn’t say where he came from or give us any contact details for his family so we settled him in our nearby shelter for the night.

There we knew he was safe from the abusers and traffickers that use India’s busy stations as a hunting ground.

The next morning Ramu admitted that he had run away from home in anger after fighting with his brother. He told us that he has two older brothers, two older sisters and had recently lost a brother due to illness. His mother looks after the home while his father works away in Ambala and being apart from his father made Ramu feel lonely and neglected. He felt that his parents loved his other brother more and when we reunited him with his family we explained to his parents how he was feeling.

We met up with the family again a fortnight later and found that Ramu’s father had changed his job so that he now worked nearer the family in Delhi. He said: "Ramu is going to school daily. I visit his school at least twice a month. I visit his classroom, talk to his teacher and check how he’s doing. 

He used to skip school and roam around with friends. He was careless about his studies but now he’s regularly attending school and spends more time with family.

By staying safely with his family Ramu is away from the dangers he faced alone at the station and by working hard at school he can create a bright future for himself. He said:

I want to join the army and become a soldier. I want to serve the nation. My class teacher talks to us and inspires us to have an aim in life.