Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Exemplary service for lost children

Santosh Patnaik

Child Line rescues some 50 children a month in the age group of 0-18 years and acts as a facilitator for either restoring them to their parents or admitting them to homes run by NGOs

VISAKHAPATNAM: To be precise, it was a lost and found story, which lasted a few hours. Thanks to the initiative of the Sub-Inspector of the Government Railway Police, a month-old infant and her three-year-old sister were not only handed over to safe hands but also restored to their mother a few hours after they were found abandoned at the railway station here.

Unable to provide two square meals a day for her five children with her husband's meagre earnings as a shepherd, Meena, 40, walked out of the house with two kids to Visakhapatnam from Rampur village in Bihar in search of work as a maid servant.

Meena left Sony, 3, and the infant on the railway platform and got into a stationary DMU to use the toilet on Sunday. Soon the train started moving and she could get down only at Simhachalam.

By the time she returned, which took about two hours, she found the children `missing' from the place where she had left them. A shell-shocked Meena was later guided to the GRP by some passerby.

Helpline contacted

GRP SI Prabhakara Rao who had handed over the children to Child Line after their `abandoning' was reported to him, soon swung into action. He contacted the Helpline 1098 to send Sony and her sister back to the railway station. The Helpline was set up by Indira Priyadarshini Service Organisation to render timely help to rescue child labourers and provide shelter and care for abandoned children.

In fact, a few hours before, Mr. Prabhakara Rao was alerted by some persons that a few people were vying with each other to adopt the two kids. The SI immediately rushed to the spot and took custody of the children. Later, he asked Child Line to take care of the children.

Child Line team member Ch. Yernibabu immediately went to the station and made arrangements to keep the children in the short-stay home at Akkayapalem. But before he could send them to the short-stay home from the Helpline office, a call from the SI again saw him rushing to the railway station with the children.

Despite her abject poverty, the joy of Meena knew no bounds when the missing children were restored to her. "The jubilant mother was in tears on seeing her children back," Yernibabu told The Hindu . GRP CI Mohan Rao and SI Prabhakara Rao were present at the reunion.

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