Kottayam: As many as 1,430 children were found unaccompanied on various trains in the past four years. The Railway Protection Force has handed over 365 of those children to their parents but the remaining children are still in the care of child welfare committees and other agencies.
The latest incident of straying children was the spotting of four teenagers on the Malabar Express last week. The boys, all aged 14, had left their houses in Mangaluru to tour Thiruvananthapuram. They had neither told their parents nor bought tickets for the journey.
The boys were held at the Kollam railway station until their parents reached to claim them.
Boys from other states make up most of the children who end up riding the trains without adult supervision. Most of them are sent to child homes because the authorities are unable to identify their parents.
Most of them have left home for silly reasons but the number of runways are increasing every year, the railway police said.
The railway police also came across 123 women, either orphaned or abandoned by their families, from the trains in the past four years. Most of them have been sent away with their families.
If you spot any suspicious looking women or children on trains, you can call the railway helpline - 182.
“Selfie” accidents are another headache for the railway. The railway authorities are planning an awareness campaign in schools and colleges to discourage youngsters from posing for dangerous selfies on railway tracks and near the doors of moving trains.
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