The RPF has also caught 44 traffickers since 2016 and handed them over to the local police.

Seventeen children have been rescued by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) from stations and trains in a week since September 17, officials at the railway zone’s headquarters in Guwahati’s Maligaon said on Thursday.

The RPF had also rescued 39 children and teenagers from traffickers this year up to August.

On September 18, a four-member team headed by Aftar Hussain rescued a minor and caught her abductor Majibar Rahman, 28, from the North East Express. A case had been pending against the man in a city police station.

Two days later, RPF inspector R.K. Yadav and the local police arrested Hemanta Sarmah, 47, at eastern Assam’s Ledo railway station and rescued three girls who were being taken to New Delhi for promised jobs.

On September 22, a team led by constable Chunu Hansda rescued three minor girls from Alipurduar railway station in West Bengal.

Traffickers lure poor children

“Our force has been alert to cases of child trafficking in the past few years, resulting in several instances of rescue and arrest of kidnappers and traffickers who usually lure poor children with job offers in some faraway urban centre,” Pranav Jyoti Sharma, Northeast Frontier Railway’s spokesperson, said.

Data provided by NFR say 60 children and teenagers were rescued from stations and trains across the zone in 2016. Of these, 40 were males, a majority of them below 18 years of age, while most of the 20 females rescued were a little more than 18.

The rescue figure came down to 16 the following year, but this time the victims were mostly girls under 18 years. The trend continued this year with 18 of the 39 rescued from traffickers up to August this year being minors.

The RPF has also caught 44 traffickers since 2016 and handed them over to the local police.

Other than trafficking cases, the RFP has dealt with 979 cases from January 2016 to August this year related to children and teenagers who were abandoned or had run away from home or shelter. Of the 1,376 rescued, 942 were males and more than 65% of them were below 18 years of age.

Among those rescued in non-trafficking cases, 516 were handed over to parents and guardians, and the remaining 860 to NGOs and authorised homes.