Runaways on Track: Railway Stations Emerge as Key Nodes in Tracing Missing Minors in Delhi

New Delhi: Over the past month, Delhi Police’s anti-human trafficking unit and other wings carried out more than a dozen rescue operations in and around railway stations in the city, tracking down eight missing minors from New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Nangloi and other stations.Delhi’s major stations have become a critical frontline in police’s efforts to trace missing children, serving simultaneously as escape conduits they choose after fleeing home and as barriers of sorts where cops patiently wait to zero in on them.The triggers in most of the eight cases that came to light this March were nearly uniform: a scolding over household chores, a quarrel with a sister-in-law or a parent’s rebuke. And the response in nearly every case was similar: the minors took a train to Bihar or Rajasthan or Hyderabad to disappear into India’s vast railway network.In one of these cases, the anti-human trafficking unit traced a 13-year-old girl to New Delhi station on March 1. She went missing from her Kanjhawala home last year after being scolded over chores. Eight days later, on March 9, a 16-year-old girl missing since last Sept was found at the same station, having spent months in Bihar with a friend following a quarrel with her sister-in-law in Delhi.On March 17, Nangloi station became the site of a similar rescue operation when another 16-year-old girl, who fled her Prem Nagar house after being frequently scolded, was spotted returning from her aunt’s place in Bihar.

On March 21, police found a 14-year-old at Anand Vihar who boarded a train to Jaipur to nurse an ailing friend without informing her family. On March 28, a 15-year-old from Vasant Kunj was traced at New Delhi station. She was returning from her grandmother’s house in Bihar, where she had escaped after having a fight with her mother.Two days later, police pulled off three rescues from New Delhi station. They intercepted a 17-year-old returning from Hyderabad after leaving home over taunts; a 16-year-old returning from Bihar, where she had gone after being scolded by her mother; and a boy, 12, who run away because his parents refused to let him visit his native village after his exams.

All three were found on different platforms and reunited with their families.A railway station offers the most accessible exit to fleeing minors, cops said because of affordable train tickets, the chance to melt into the crowd and direct access to distant states where relatives or friends often offer them shelter.Police personnel of the unit often spend days scanning Delhi’s stations and quizzing minors loitering alone. “We maintain surveillance using CCTV feed and coordinate with railway staff to identify unaccompanied kids. In several instances, a child spotted loitering on a platform, questioned briefly and let go, is stopped again hours or days later, following which a cross-check against records of missing persons reveals an active report,” an investigator added.