Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) - Childline …

1 National Commission for protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) For all the Stakeholders in Safeguarding Rights of Children in Contact with railways NCPCR Working Group 2013 The Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) or the Protocol is developed with the objectives of acknowledging the facts and figures indicating child protection issues in context of railways network and role and responsibilities of the Indian railways and other stakeholders in ensuring protection of such children who are in need of Care and protection (travelling alone, living in the stations with or without family). Role and responsibilities of the Authorities in the railways systems has been defined in the Protocol, including the Railway protection force , railways Officials Station Master, Train Ticket Examiner (TTE), and allied systems Government railways Police (GRP), Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU), and CHILDLINE1098.

2 The Protocol details the set up and standards to facilitate the care and support to the children in vulnerable situations. The railways to manage a Child Helpdesk at each Station. 1 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) For all the Stakeholders in Safeguarding Rights of Children in Contact with railways The Gist of the Standard Operating Procedures It has been universally recognized through United Nations Convention on Rights of Child (UNCRC) that that every child is a rights holder and, as a unique and valuable human being, has rights to be safe and be protected from all forms of abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation and to be safeguarded from falling into vulnerable situations.

3 Indian legal system has enacted Juveline justice (Care and protection of Children) Act 2000 in response to this. A large number of vulnerable children come in contact with the Indian railways as passengers or as abandoned, trafficked, runway children from their homes. Missing children travelling in trains and homeless children living at the platforms and working in and around the platforms within the Railway Stations are also children requiring protection . Keeping the best interest of the child in view, Railway protection force (RPF) is required to handover the child to the (Government Railway Police of the state (GRP) concerned so as to bring all these vulnerable children under the safety net as provided under the Juvenile Justice (for Care & protection of Children) Act 2000 so that the children are ultimately rehabilitated and reintegrated.)

4 To ensure this, RFP will immediately hand over the child to GRP concerned for adequate treatment to the child under JJ System. This Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) will be developed to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the authorities of RPF and standards of services to be provided by the railways for: - Safe transition of children found in stations and on trains, to the safety net under Juvenile Justice system through handing the children to the GRP concerned; - Setting up and management of Child Help Desks at all Railway with minimum standards of providing immediate help and support to the child till the handing over of child to the GRP.

5 - Referral of these children by the Child protection Officer of RPF at the station to the GRP concerned so that the child can be produced before Child Welfare Committee of the district constituted under Juvenile Justice Act; - Provision of railway helpline integrated with railtel for vulnerable children in moving trains. The SOP will have the following Sections: 1. The introduction section of the SOP will state the purpose, objectives of the Protocols acknowledging the facts and figures indicating child protection issues in context of railways network and role and responsibilities of the Indian railways in ensuring child protection .

6 2. Children in need of Care and protection who comes in contact of the railways will be defined as travelling using the railways and children living in the stations with family or without family. 2 3. Role and responsibilities of the Authorities in the railways systems will be defined and defined in the Protocol. These include Railway protection force , railways Officials Station Master, Train Ticket Examiner (TTE), and allied systems Government railways Police (GRP), Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU), and CHILDLINE1098. 4. The Protocol will detail the set up and its standards to facilitate the care and support to the children in vulnerable situations.

7 The railways will manage a Child Helpdesk at the Stations. Preamble: It has been universally recognized that every child is a rights holder and, as a unique and valuable human being, has rights to be safe and be protected from all forms of abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation and to be safeguarded from falling into vulnerable situations. Children living on the railway stations and other transport terminals constitute a highly vulnerable and marginalized section of the society who normally enters the Railway platforms to eke out a living or for the security it offers. They are often seen trudging on railway tracks picking scrap, standing with outstretched palms at traffic signals, selling water bottles, plastic toys and gutkha packets, lying sprawled under railway staircases, rummaging through garbage cans to salvage a lunch, trying to escape a police eye and enduring blows.

8 One brushes past them while scrambling to catch a train or at the most, give some alms or food out of pity. India is reported to have the largest number of street children in the world; nameless, faceless entities whose welfare is as ambiguous as their existence. UNICEF has quoted an estimated eleven million street children in India; this is now believed to be a conservation figure, with estimated 100,000 125,000 street children in each of the metro cities, , Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi alone. Similarly an average 1, 46,733 children are entering railway platforms of Delhi New Delhi and Old Delhi Railway Stations.

9 These vulnerable children are known to enter the streets via railways and vice versa too. NGOs working with such children report that a large majority reach the streets of cities and towns through the railway network as boarding freely trains is not only a novelty but ensures anonymity and easy and fast transportation from home locations. True a majority of these children leave their homes voluntarily in search of work, run away or are forced to leave homes where they suffer poverty, violence, abuse and neglect. With India having the second largest rail network in the world with 16 Railway zones, 68 Divisions and around 7000-8000 railway stations across the country, millions of homeless children are known to travel daily through these stations.

10 Stations are their source, transit or destination areas. Their high mobility implies necessary early interventions coupled with more dynamic approaches involving partnerships through networks of railways , efficient Government machinery, and accountable agencies and committed NGOs across the states, in order to ensure these 3 children better life. These children can be identified at the very transit areas, and intercepted at the routes and rehabilitated. There is also urgency to build upon the resources available and invest these in the children to sustain their lost childhood towards Social Rehabilitation and Reintegration.