Bengaluru: Friends and classmates Chandan and Ranjth (both names changed) travelled for more than 3,000 km from Assam and spent 50 hours on Kamakhya Express. Luckily for the 13-year-olds, volunteers who are into rescuing children were on the platform at Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna station in Bengaluru when they alighted from the train a couple of months ago and rescued them.
Additional divisional railway manager (Bengaluru division) Kusuma Hariprasad, who is also in-charge of child rescue operations, said: “One of the boys said they travelled all the way from Assam to see Bengaluru and meet his brother working in a garment factory in the city. His parents were not aware of the plan he had made with his friend. The boy had no details about where his brother was working in the city. Finally, volunteers managed to contact the parents of the boy and helped them reunite.”
In another case, Hariprasad (name changed) came to Bengaluru from Kalaburagi to escape uncaring parents. “This boy wanted to escape from his parents. His mother remarried after the death of her husband. The boy told us that he gets beaten up by her mother and stepfather and does not want to live with them. He had secured first class in SSLC and wanted to undergo some skill training in Bengaluru,” the official said.
In the last five years, 8,819 children, including 755 girls, have been rescued from railway stations in Bengaluru, according to data from south division of the railways.
Kusuma Hariprasad said most of the children rescued in the Bengaluru division of South Western Railway (SWR) come from Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other parts of North India. There were instances of children coming from Nepal also. A majority of the children rescued fall in the age group of 12 to 16.
There are multiple reasons why children travel on long-distance trains to reach Bengaluru: Poor financial conditions forcing parents to send their children to metro cities to earn some money, middlemen supplying children as labourers to factories, uncaring parents, to visit Bengaluru and roam around the city. There were also instances of girls eloping with their boyfriends.
Additional divisional railway manager (Bengaluru division) Kusuma Hariprasad, who is also in-charge of child rescue operations, said: “One of the boys said they travelled all the way from Assam to see Bengaluru and meet his brother working in a garment factory in the city. His parents were not aware of the plan he had made with his friend. The boy had no details about where his brother was working in the city. Finally, volunteers managed to contact the parents of the boy and helped them reunite.”
In another case, Hariprasad (name changed) came to Bengaluru from Kalaburagi to escape uncaring parents. “This boy wanted to escape from his parents. His mother remarried after the death of her husband. The boy told us that he gets beaten up by her mother and stepfather and does not want to live with them. He had secured first class in SSLC and wanted to undergo some skill training in Bengaluru,” the official said.
In the last five years, 8,819 children, including 755 girls, have been rescued from railway stations in Bengaluru, according to data from south division of the railways.
Kusuma Hariprasad said most of the children rescued in the Bengaluru division of South Western Railway (SWR) come from Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other parts of North India. There were instances of children coming from Nepal also. A majority of the children rescued fall in the age group of 12 to 16.
There are multiple reasons why children travel on long-distance trains to reach Bengaluru: Poor financial conditions forcing parents to send their children to metro cities to earn some money, middlemen supplying children as labourers to factories, uncaring parents, to visit Bengaluru and roam around the city. There were also instances of girls eloping with their boyfriends.