Runaway kids keep rly police on their toes

In 1997, 4,027 such children were taken into custody by railway police; in 1998, the figure was 2,839; and this year, 159 children have been held in January alone.

These kids come from all over the country; sometimes even from Nepal and Bangladesh. Reasons can be as simple as sight-seeing or an attempt to escape difficult situations back home.

The children, who are caught under Section 13 of the Juvenile Justice Act, are sent off to Umarkhadi Remand Home at Dongri. They are then taken to the Bal Kalyan Mandal. If the child has committed a theft, he/she is taken tothe Juvenile Court. Both the Mandal and the Court are inside the home8217;s premises.

It8217;s up to police then to trace the parents of the child. 8220;Sometimes, parents take away their children immediately after they are informed,8221; says N M Kale, superintendent of the remand home. 8220;But when the parents of a child, coming from some faraway place like Calcutta or Nepal, cannot afford coming to Mumbai, it takes a long time to send the child home.8221;

Railway police step in again at this point. Two constables escort the child home. One of them has to be a woman. 8220;Technically we don8217;t have to spend a penny. Railways provide the travel warrants and the constables can claim their travel expenses,8221; says R S Tadvi, senior police inspector, CST police station.

But the constables generally end up spending a lot more. And from their own pockets. Constable Shobha Jamdade says, 8220;The money given by the courts is never enough. How much food can you buy for Rs 15 when you8217;re travelling for three days?8221; She recalls the timeshe had to spend Rs 250 on cabs in Delhi.

Senior police officers agree. 8220;There8217;s no legal provision about how much money should be spent on the child8217;s food, and money cannot be reimbursed without receipts,8221; says V M Dhere, senior PI at Borivli. 8220;Besides, all our efforts are wasted when children run away again and come back to Mumbai,8221; he says.

The home at Dongri is the only place where these children can be kept. 8220;At any given time, we have around 450 boys and a hundred girls in our home,8221; says Kale.

Railway police have only eight police stations in Mumbai, three for the Central line and five for the Western. 8220;Compared to other problems like thefts, murders and burglaries, sending children to their homes has least priority,8221; says P B Konde Deshmukh, deputy superintendent of police, Railways.

So with an understaffed railway police force, court orders to take the children home can lie unattended for months. Sometimes, years. Take Abhijeet Dhore for example. The 10-year-old ran away fromRajapeth, Amravati because his father beat him up. 8220;I want to see my mother,8221; he says. 8220;I gave them my address. Even wrote to my parents. But no one here is willing to take me back.8221;