On December 31, 2021, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff on duty found a 16-year-old boy loitering on Platform No. 1 of Mysuru City Railway station. When questioned, he replied that he had come to collect the bet money he had won in an online game from a competitor, who claimed that he was from Mysuru.
The 16-year-old boy, a resident of Nandini Layout in Bengaluru, had left his house without informing his parents after winning a bet of ₹ 1,000 in an online game that involved shooting down the opponent. The anonymous competitor whom the boy had befriended online, had asked the boy to come to Mysuru to collect the bet money. But, when the 16-year-old boy reached Mysuru by train, his online competitor did not respond to his messages, leaving him in the lurch.
“There was no way to trace the online competitor, who had neither shared a mobile number nor was he/she responding to boy’s online messages. The runaway boy was handed over to Child Helpline, which in turn produced him before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) before re-runiting him with his parents”, said Venkatesha K., Inspector of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Mysuru.
While a total of 14 runaway children were rescued during the calendar year 2020, their number went upto 15 in 2021 before reaching 27 including 2 girls in just the first six months (till June) of 2022.
Mobile phones appear to be one of the major reasons for minors to run away from their houses. Refusal by their parents to allow them enough time on mobile phones or buy them mobile phone of their choice turns out to be enough for minors to runaway from home. “Even though there have been instances of minors upset with their parents for not buying them a motorcycle or a cycle, the refusal to allow them to use mobile phones or not buying them one stands out”, said Namitha, Sub-Inspector of RPF in Mysuru.
After befriending people on social media platforms, minors set out to meet their “friends”, only to be the stopped in their tracks, she said while citing the case of a minor girl from Yelwala near Mysuru, who had become friends with a boy from Bihar after coming in contact with him online. After the boy returned to his native place from Yelwala, the girl too had tried to leave after a few days. Fortunately, she was spotted by the RPF staff in Mysuru City Railway station and reunited with her parents, but only after the standard operating procedure (SOP) of handing over over the runaway child to the Child Helpline, which in turn produces them before the CWC.
“We found a 15-year-old boy, who had even run away from his house in a village in Mysuru district as his parents refused to get him married”, said Ms. Namitha.
The RPF in Mysuru had also recorded instances of boys and girls running away from hostels complaining of either quarrels with other inmates, harassment from hostel authorities or simply due to lack of interest in the studies. Sharing the cases of inmates running away from hostels, Mr. Venkatesha underlined the need for hostel authorities to pay attention to the psychological needs of the young inmates to prevent them from becoming runaways.
Mr. Venkatesha said the RPF has not only formed an Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) focussed on rescuing particularly women and children from the clutches of traffickers, but had also deployed its personnel to rescue minors under the Nanhe Farishte (or little angels) initiative.
