Ranchi: Railway Protection Force to adopt children who lost parents to Covid-19

RANCHI: The officers and active service personnel of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) will adopt children who have lost their parents due to Covid-19.

Earlier this month, IG Railway Board (HQ) Sumati Shandilya wrote to the general managers of all railway zones and intimated about a new adoption programme under code name “Reach Out, Secure and Rehabilitate”. The programme is aimed at preventing the orphaned and vulnerable children from being drawn into the cauldron of human trafficking, Shandilya wrote.

Accordingly, the RPF officials at Ranchi railway division of the South Eastern Railways are gearing up for the programme. Under the programme, each officer or serving personnel will be assigned to look after one child and oversee their upkeep, academics and other requirements.

Speaking to TOI, RPF’s commandant of Ranchi railway division Prashant Yadav said: “We will be on the lookout for such children. As and when they are found, they will be brought and given shelter in local shelter homes through local NGOs. They will be lodged by the NGOs and their studies and other expenses will be taken care of by the Indian Railways.”

One officer or serving RPF personnel will be assigned to a child. The personnel will be in constant touch with the child, pay a weekly visit and even offer mental support and provide counselling. Special training module is being drafted for the RPF personnel.

Yadav said railways aims to raise money for the upkeep of the children through corporate social responsibility funds and are approaching business establishments for this purpose. The railways might also use funds from its Railways Suraksha Kalyan Nidhi for the programme.

In June this year, the state government had announced that it will look after the children who have lost their parents due to Covid-19. The department of women and social welfare claimed that it had identified more than 300 such children for the state-sponsored adoption programme. However, the programme is yet to be launched.

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