India is home to 472 million children, who are below the age of 18 years and comprise 39 per cent of the country’s total population. Out of the 128.5 million children residing in urban areas, close to 7.8 million children between the ages of 0 to six years still live in conditions of poverty and backwardness in informal settlements. Children in India experience problems like neglect, abuse, illiteracy, malnutrition, child labour, child marriage and criminal acts. These factors are primarily responsible for leading to detrimental effects on their lives. To make their living worthwhile and to utilize their skills and abilities for the development of the country, it is necessary to make provision for progression opportunities.

A UNICEF study in 2012 revealed that 400,000 children survive in the harsh environment of India’s streets. Every 5 minutes, a child arrives alone at a railway station in India. Railway platforms see a high footfall of at-risk children who get separated from their families because of various reasons. A survey conducted by RCI in 2015 indicates that 121,860 children are arriving at and around 32 stations across all 16 Railway Zones every year.

Children who are running away from their homes for various reasons are under a high-risk category. The longer a child or adolescent is missing, the greater the risk they face. When children leave their homes based on the pressure they face or under the influence of peer group, he/she becomes extremely vulnerable to torture, exploitation and trafficking. The CHILDLINE report on missing children states that children are often kidnapped or trafficked for prostitution, organ donations, employment, and similar purposes. 

The problem of children away from home is too complex to be analyzed because of the multitude of factors — social, economic, institutional and administrative — responsible for pushing children out of their homes. There are at least three stages involved in restoring the runaway children namely, rescuing them and preventing them from risks; the process of reuniting the children with their families or putting them under long term care if there is no proper family and thirdly following them up to see that the conditions that were responsible for children leaving home do not occur again, implying family and community strengthening programs.

Railway Children India (RCI) is implementing the station-level intervention at the Ghaziabad Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh since January 2018. This intervention is in its 4^th year and protected 2254 children until March 2022. Ghaziabad Railway station is part of the Northern Railway where 3-4 children arrive alone and at risk in a day. As per a recent baseline study conducted by RCI, it is observed that the majority of children are arriving at the station from Bihar (50 %) and many of them were from the Katihar district of Bihar followed by Uttar Pradesh (28.6 %) and West Bengal (14.3%). Ghaziabad junction is also being used by traffickers as an entry point to Delhi. Hence, Ghaziabad is an important point of outreach as almost all the trains to Delhi halt at Ghaziabad railway station.

Post the pandemic, Ghaziabad railway station has started witnessing more children who arrive alone and in risky situations. Hence, the intervention at the Ghaziabad railway station will be continued and RCI will work towards ensuring the sustainability of the protection system within the railway station.

RCI continues to work in collaboration with every stakeholder to bring sustainable change in the life of vulnerable children by building the resilience of their families to cope with the adverse impact of the pandemic – COVID 19. 

GOAL- Every child arrives at Ghaziabad railway station are safe and rehabilitated with families and lead a positive life.

Objectives

• To protect 450 children arriving alone and at risk to the Ghaziabad railway station and to sustainably
• rehabilitate 405 of them with families and 45 with long-term care home during 1 year of intervention
• & Develop Ghaziabad Railway Station as a model station on Child Protection & Safeguarding

Expected Outcome-

• 450 children who arrived alone, at-risk and in need of care and protection are protected at Ghaziabad railway station among those 405 children are restored to families and 45 are referred to long care with 1 year of intervention.
• 405 reunified children staying with their families and other childcare institutions are systematically followed up and provided post-restoration and rehabilitation which includes counselling, school admission, linkage to vocational training and sponsorship/ scholarship schemes.
• 300 Railway stakeholders (GRP, RPF and station level officials) are trained and sensitized on child protection, SOP of railways and Child rights.
• 12 Child Help Group (CHG) meetings will be conducted under the leadership of the Station Master. Proceedings of the same will be shared with the ADRM office at Railway for further guidance and support. Action taken review will be carried out during the quarterly review.
• 5000 passengers are sensitized through campaigns and awareness programs at Ghaziabad railway station within 1 year of intervention.

Key Activities:

• Activity 1: 24hr outreach at the railway station- RCI will conduct 24 x 7 outreach at railway station to provide care and protection to children arriving at the station. Our team will collaborate with Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) and other primary stakeholders of railways to ensure that no child faces any kind of abuse and exploitation at the railway station.
• Activity 2: 24x7 Child Help Desk (CHD)- RCI has set up a Child Help Desk which acts as a resource centre of information that the child needs and can use. It is manned with adequate human resources having the requisite skill to outreach children immediately and can cater to their immediate needs like counselling, food, water, medical support and reunification with parents.  This CHD will be the focal point for coordinating the child protection work around the railway station.  The CHD will facilitate the restoration of children back to the family or long-term care, depending on their best interests and conduct follow up to ensure that children remain living in a safe environment.
• Activity 3: Restoration of children with families or refer them to long term care- Child Welfare Officer will work with every child and his family to facilitate the smooth restoration process. This process will include family tracing, discussion with family members, identifying the problem which pushed the child out of home and works to address the same. Families are supported to fulfil the statutory process for restoration. Before restoration, the child and parents are counselled to manage the post-restoration challenges. Wherever restoration with families is not possible, through CWC intervention, children are referred to long care homes.
• Activity 4: Post restoration support to reunified children- RCI will provide post-restoration support to the reunified children and their families.  The post-restoration support includes re-enrolment in school, counselling, link with vocational training, nutrition, healthcare and de-addiction support, sanitation and hygiene and sponsorship/ scholarship schemes in collaboration with network partners.
• Activity 5: Training and Sensitization of railway authorities, RPF, GRP and the wider station community- RCI in collaboration with a local partner will conduct quarterly training for railway authorities, RPF, GRP every quarter on Child protection mechanisms and related laws to ensure care and protection of children in contact with Railways. Quarterly Passenger awareness campaigns will be carried out quarterly.
• Activity 6: Facilitation of the functioning of Child Help Group (CHG) at the Railway stations - Child Help Group (CHG) is a monitoring committee initiated on the mandates of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the Ministry of Railways. The CHG includes Station Master Commercial, Inspector GRP, Inspector RPF, Senior Section Engineer, CTI/TC and RCI local partner. Our local partners have ensured Child Help Groups are formed at all the four project locations and regular meetings are held in all locations. During these meetings, officials review the performance of the project and take stock of what intervention has been carried for every child protected. Discussions on challenges and gaps are held and the CHG members extend their support towards addressing these challenges and gaps.
• Activity 7: Awareness Campaign at the railway stations- RCI in collaboration with local partner at the Ghaziabad railway station will conduct awareness campaigns every quarter. These awareness campaigns will be conducted in form of street theatre, audio-visual presentations, and one-to-one information dissemination. These campaigns will be for 7 days (one week) during the special days including Universal Children’s Day, Girl Children Day, Day against Child Sexual Abuse and National Youth Day.  Awareness materials related to the event will be designed and translated into local languages and used in the form of print and digital medium.