Reaching more children in more locations

  • Date: 20 February 2020
  • In: India

Our work at stations in India is expanding even further this year and three more locations are being added to our network of child friendly stations.

This means even more desperate children who arrive alone at the country’s chaotic railways will be kept safe from the predators, abusers and traffickers who see the network as an ideal hunting ground. We’re now working at Ghaziabad, Raipur and Dadar to make these safer places for vulnerable children and we know we will be able to have a big impact on their lives.

 

Our projects expect to reach 960 children at the three stations over the next six months.

In each location children at risk will be identified and contacted by our outreach teams, who operate 24 hours a day.

There will also be a child help desk in each station so children have somewhere to go for help and advice and we will make sure each child is cared for, has something to eat and gets medical help when needed. 

We will work with the children and reunite them with their families whenever possible, or find alternative solutions, so they always have somewhere safe to call home. We will also work in communities to work out why children are running away and try to address the problems so they stay at home and help strengthen the families.

We will make over 10,000 people aware of the issues faced by these vulnerable children.

 

The extension of our work also means we will be training 2,170 railway officials and 8,000 passengers on the network on child safeguarding.

At each station we will also use posters and public announcements to help the public understand the problems the children face, what they may have been through, and how they can all play their part in protecting them.

By making sure the whole rail community is working together to be our eyes and ears we can keep more children safe.