Children, both boys and girls, are sold into slavery or prostitution in some of India's train stations in big numbers. It's not a safe place for kids. Families sleep on the floor of the station, where kids can be stolen from between their parents. Over 630 children were reported missing to police in the West Bengal district in one month.
Even the police are not necessarily a safe haven. "Deva, 13, sleeps in the parking area and describes police violence as a more pernicious threat than traffickers. “They wake us up and hit us or chase me and my friends.”
And finally . . families themselves may put kids in danger. Some send children to live in the station in the hope that they can somehow make money.
Uptal, 13, now lives in the station as an escape from home, playing cricket by day and sleeping on cars in the parking lot at night. At age 9 he was forced by his father into 12-hour days of work at a factory.
"Rosheen, aged 12, was born on the station steps outside its main entrance, the latest generation of her family to have lived in one of the most public places it is possible to imagine.Her bedroom is a flattened cardboard box . ."
photo: zeenews
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