Protect 1000 Children at India's Railway Stations

The railways have been in lockdown across India and are only now slowly opening up. There has therefore been very little activity at stations. Our work has instead been focussed on supporting the remaining children in our shelters and in providing emergency support to vulnerable families who we have previously reunited. Team members have continued to stay in touch with the families to identify their ongoing needs. Special focus has been given towards children and education. 

Our teams have also adapted and have quickly identified vulnerable communities close to the railway stations who are in more desperate need than ever due to COVID. We have identified volunteers from each community to work with these vulnerable families. These volunteers were trained on child rights and protection. Initiatives have been carried to set-up Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS) at each of the community areas involving children from various age groups. These children will be engaged in Non-Formal and Life Skill sessions to empower them and guide them to have a positive and successful life.

In Katpadi for example in Tamil Nadu, the team now works with nomadic communities who have settled in and around the railway station and use the railway station as their livelihood. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, these families have lost all their earnings and partners support them with a meal every day. There are 110 children including 42 girls living with these families. Because their families travel city to city, these children have never been to school. Even though their families have now lived here for two years – the families still did not think to enrol them. Our partner has taken the initiative to enrol these children into schools. There are challenges around this including lack of documentation for the children which is needed for enrolment and the partner is supporting families to get these. Meanwhile, team members have started engaging children through various classes. 108 children were enrolled from these communities and they are doing non-formal education and Life Skills sessions.  Children are now able to read and write English alphabets and able to write and read numbers from 1 to 100. A non-formal educator teaches these children with crafts and the children have started making garlands from recycled materials. Through Life Skill sessions, self-care was taught. Children started practicing it by attending the sessions with combed hair and by dressing neatly. All children are now aware that they need to wash their hands with soap and take care of their belongings. Drawing classes were very popular and the children participated passionately. 

Thanks to these lessons, 24 children have learned to read and write English alphabets and numbers up to 100. Parents of these children have expressed their happiness to see their children learning and thanked the team.

Links:

• Dev Patel star of movie LION supports Railway Children India