Child trafficking in trains down

Hyderabad: Incidents of child trafficking in trains have dropped this year, with 46 children rescued in the past seven months compared to 572 in all of 2021, according to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the South Central Railway.

Officials said that the children were mostly trafficked from Bihar and West Bengal, and forced to work in factories in the city. Agencies working to eradicate trafficking attributed the dip to increased sensitisation and stringent checks of the RPF.

Secunderabad RPF inspector Udugu Narsimha cited the deployment of anti-human trafficking teams of the RPF, with one sub-inspector and two constables, at each station. He said, “RPF is conducting frequent workshops in sensitising TTEs, porters and vendors, who dial the 1098 childline to alert authorities over suspicious behaviour.”

Four, 10, five, seven, five, six and nine cases were respectively registered from January to July, he said.

Ande Venkateshwarlu, the state coordinator of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said, “As the travel for traffickers became tougher, the culprits are avoiding trains and using other modes of travel.”