Delhi : A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) on Friday with the objective of creating a child trafficking free country.
Founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi in 1980, BBA liberates and rehabilitates vulnerable and exploited children and helps prosecute those responsible for the atrocities.
For a child friendly railway, free of trafficking, both organisations agreed to collaborate jointly for preventing multiple forms of child abuse. The partnership is focused on three critical aspects: training and capacity building, sensitization and awareness campaigns and raid and rescue support.
According to the joint statement, BBA would provide technical support to organise training and awareness workshops for RPF personnel across 750 Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) and other railway staff working at different stations.
For sensitizing and informing passengers and creating deterrence among the offenders, BBA would also provide audio-visual content that could be displayed as video clips or announced as voice messages inside the trains or at railway stations.
The raid and rescue partnership involves training the railway personnel to identify potential victims. The statement said that RPF would immediately act on the information from BBA and its partners, cyber cell, state police and other law enforcement agencies. Credible information from local people and agencies would also be swiftly pursued and raids conducted, the statement said.
BBA would share intelligence information regarding identified trafficking hubs and offenders to RPF and help the force provide viable leads to its field units by developing the trafficking module–essentially a database of detected and perceived trafficking cases.
A joint civic action programme will be launched in the areas that were already identified as trafficking hubs, the statement said.
“We are extremely proud to be associated with the Railway Protection Force and this will go a long way in combating trafficking of children in our country. BBA has rescued more than 10,000 trafficked children during the pandemic, and most were from railway stations. We are committed to support the RPF in future”, said Rajni Sekhri Sibal, CEO Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
Sanjay Chander, director general of RPF appreciated the role of BBA in fighting the menace of child trafficking and expressed his faith in the MoU for a child friendly society.
