Runaways, gone missing: Over 140 children rescued by Thane GRP in 2024

THANE: When six-month-old Rajiv was adopted by a young couple working private sector in the first week of August, Jyoti Kavare heaved a sigh of relief. A government railway police (GRP) constable posted at Kalyan railway station, Kavare had grown attached to Rajiv since he was found inside an abandoned bag in a Kasara-bound local.

It was then the second week of February, and Rajiv was just a day old. Kavare and her colleagues scanned through hours of CCTV footage, identified the woman who had left the bag on the train and traced her, only to be told that the baby was born out of an extramarital affair and she did not want to keep him due to societal pressures.

In keeping with the usual practice in such cases, Rajiv was placed in a children’s home run by a non-governmental organisation (NGO). But Kavare was worried about how the boy would grow up without parents and economic support.

“I was very happy when he was adopted by a well-to-do family,” she told HT. “Though we handle many cases of missing children, Rajiv’s case was special because he was just a day old when we found him.”

In fact, Rajiv was one of 140 children rescued by (Please clarify if 140 were reunited or 140 were rescued. If reunited, please provide the total number rescued) the GRP from Thane, Bhiwandi and Kalyan stations this year under the aegis of Operation Muskaan, an initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Most children had either run away from home or were lost/ missing. Many were reunited with their families whereas in cases where families were not available, children were placed under the care of NGOs.

The purpose behind the exercise, said senior police officials, is to ensure children do not fall prey to begging rackets. Like Kavare, they said they felt a huge sense of satisfaction and happiness whenever they reunited children with their families despite all odds.

Seeking freedom

Worried about their future in a tribal hamlet in Jharkhand where girls are married off against their wishes in their early teens, seven girls aged between 12 and 15 years hatched an audacious plan. After gathering information over weeks from villagers who had traveled to Mumbai for work, they decided they would flee to the city and take up jobs in textile factories in Bhiwandi. With money and independence, they would pursue their dreams of becoming fashion designers, artists, models or teachers.

The girls boarded a Mumbai-bound train in the first week of January in pursuit of their plan, But once they landed in Kalyan, they were overwhelmed by the rush of commuters during peak hours and could think of nothing but meekly roaming around the station premises. On January 10, after someone tipped off the Kalyan GRP about the girls, constable Neelima Gangavane located them on platform five.

“I brought them to the station house and offered them food and water. Though they were initially silent, they began speaking after a few hours – perhaps after realising they had committed a major mistake,” said Gangavane.

Only one of the girls, whose father works as a mining labourer, remembered her address, based on which the Kalyan GRP intimated the Jharkhand police. But the village was so remote that it took three days for the GRP to get the contact number of the village headman. It then took the headman another two to three days to locate the girl’s father. When he finally spoke to his daughter after continuous efforts for seven days, he promised to support her education and delay her marriage as per her wish. He also informed the GRP that the parents of all the girls were too poor to travel to Mumbai to take them back.

The girls meanwhile had been moved to a government girls’ hostel in Ulhasnagar where they learned to make gowns and fancy dresses. One of them even learned to cook Mumbai-style dishes before a police escort was arranged to take them back home.

“Though the girls were in Mumbai for hardly a month, the short stint changed them completely,” said Gangavane. “We were delighted to see their enthusiasm and ambition and have been receiving updates from them about their progress in stitching and other skills they picked up here,” she said, beaming.

Strict surveillance

GRP officers said it is a priority for them to locate/ identify vulnerable children and reunite them with their families or place them in children’s homes for rehabilitation.

“Each railway station (Kalyan, Thane and Dombivli) has two constables dedicated for this work and women-related cases and they focus wholeheartedly on resolving them,” said Adinath Budhwant, assistant commissioner of police, Thane GRP. These constables thoroughly examine the platforms and station premises to identify children who are seen begging or reported to be roaming unattended.

“Whenever such cases are identified, immediate action is taken by our officers,” said Budhwant. Children whose addresses cannot be located are sent to children’s homes in Bhiwandi, Dombivli, and Ulhasnagar based on their age group. “This year, 15 such children have been placed in homes. Efforts are being made to either reunite them with their families or rehabilitate them to prevent their involvement in begging rackets,” said Budhwant.

Awaiting relief

Despite the efforts of GRP personnel, many cases remain unresolved due to language barriers and other issues. For instance, a nine-year-old boy from Assam who was rescued from Dombivli station six months ago has been languishing in a children’s home in Kalyan since then.

“The boy had boarded a random bus and then a train to reach Dombivli,” said Kavare, who handled the case. For the first three months in the children’s home, he didn’t speak a word to anyone or even indicate when he was hungry. Gradually though, he began understanding Hindi and communicating in bits and pieces. “Towards the end of July, he told us was that there was a temple in his village. He could not remember any further details,” said Kavare.

The GRP then alerted all police stations in Assam and were informed that a flower vendor who stays near a temple in Karbi Anglong district had reported her nine-year-old son missing six months ago. A video call was arranged in the first week of August, when the flower vendor identified her son.

“The woman was in tears when she saw her missing son. She told us that she was struggling to earn for her four children and had scolded the boy one day, after which he left the house in anger,” said Kavare.

Since the boy’s mother is too poor to travel to Mumbai, a police escort is being arranged to take him to his native place in Assam. “The reunion is expected in a few days,” beamed Kavare.