Railway stations to be child-friendly

LUCKNOW: Child help groups (CHGs) at Charbagh and Lucknow junction stations will help ‘runaway’ children and those abandoned at stations to either return home or start a new life. Charbagh railway station is the country's first child-friendly station. Now, 10 other stations in Lucknow will be made child-freindly.
“CHGs will be formed at all identified stations,” said founder and general secretary of the NGO working with railways, Shachi Singh.
On Friday, railway officers from both Northern and North Eastern Railway, representatives from the NGO and railway protection force (RPF) personnel met and discussed the road map to make Manaknagar, Alamnagar, Utrethia, Gomtinagar, Mohbillapur, Aishbagh city and Lucknow junction stations ‘child-friendly’.
“Standard operating procedure put in place by the Railway Board will be set up at these stations,” said DCM, Northern Railway Amitabh Kumar.
Children on railway platforms do not have access to basic facilities. Conditions at the station are exploitative and There is constant influx of new children at the station.
Every year, about 1,13,000 children are found alone and at risk at railway stations. Every day, around 16,000 children arrive at railway stations. At Charbagh alone, about 200 runaway or abandoned children are found everyday.