Chandana Sinha Has Rescued 1,500 Children

Her team scour platforms and trains, looking out for vulnerable children accompanied by adults who look or behave suspiciously or whose presence makes the child uncomfortable.
They also look out for children travelling alone.

'We watch, listen and talk. All this is done tactfully and sensitively because we are dealing with young children.'

When trains halt at Lucknow's Charbagh junction, Railway Protection Force Inspector Chandana Sinha and her team enter the compartments to conduct regular checks.

They scan the faces of passengers, especially minors on long distance trains, to detect illegal child trafficking or runaway kids.

On three occasions last year, they detected something was seriously wrong aboard the Begampura Express that connects Varanasi to Jammu.

They saw groups of boys, around 12-13 years old, mostly wearing vests and shorts sitting together in the general compartment. The children seemed poor, hesitant, and had a vacant air.

On being asked where they were going, they did not know the destination. Most spoke the local dialect and came from the interior villages near Varanasi.

On being coaxed, they revealed they were going to work and that the person who had hired them was in the sleeper coach.

Sensing that the boys had set course on a dangerous journey, the RPF staff tactfully prevailed upon them to get off by telling them that they were travelling on the wrong train.

Meanwhile, other RPF personnel nabbed the man who was accompanying them from the other compartment. He revealed that the boys were being taken to work on a fruit farm near Amritsar. The man offered a bribe to get off the hook, but Inspector Sinha's team made him disembark and handed him to the Child Trafficking Unit police station.

The boys were handed to the state's Child Helpline facility and moved to Child Shelter Homes before being sent back to their villages.

1,500 runaway minors rescued since 2024

Inspector Chandana Sinha and team rescued 41 boys on three occasions from the superfast train.

Leading the Railway's Child Rescue Unit, she has led a committed team and set up an effective system to rescue illegally trafficked or runaway minors on the rail network.

Between 2024-2025, 1,500 children have been rescued from trains passing through the Lucknow railway division where she is posted.

193 have been individually rescued by her.

On January 9, Inspector Chandana Sinha was awarded the Indian Railways highest service award -- the Ati Vishisht Sewa Puruskar -- by the railway minister in New Delhi. The award includes a silver medal and a certificate.

"Young children who are trafficked usually come from poor homes. They are lured with promises of work as farm hands or servants for Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 and think they can help support their families. There is a risk of these children being exploited or their organs being removed. Our task is to stop this," says Inspector Chandana, the mother of a young daughter herself who joined the RPF in 2010.

How the rescue is carried out

Her team -- some in uniform and others in plainclothes -- scour the platforms and trains, looking out for vulnerable children accompanied by adults who look or behave suspiciously or whose presence makes the child uncomfortable.

They also look out for children travelling alone.

"We watch, listen and talk. All this is done tactfully and sensitively because we are dealing with young children."

Sometimes they find children who have run away from home or teenaged girls making the journey in the pursuit of an online romance.

"It is very difficult to win their trust because they feel the whole world is against them. So they are given counseling sessions through the CWC and Child Helpline. The parents are also counseled."

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Once they found a girl who had fled home two days before her wedding.

Another underage girl left home to meet a man who was twice her age. "We spent hours making her understand and were finally able to send her home," says Inspector Sinha who served many years in Delhi before moving to Lucknow.

Once a mentally challenged child made her way to the station thinking this was an outing.

"We found her and reunited her with her family. Imagine what would have happened if she found her way into the wrong hands."

"She just sat with her arms wrapped around me till her parents arrived."

The railway platform as a refuge and transit spot

"A railway station stands out as a symbol of refuge to runaway children. They think they can find shelter, food and perhaps a way out," she says.

The train station is also a transit spot for child traffickers and units like Inspector Sinha's are tasked to prevent such illegal acts.

Her unit is assisted by child welfare NGOs and government child helpline bodies.

"Children have to be handled with great care because it is very difficult to get them to open up to you. Over the years, we have learnt how to deal with this sensitively and effectively," says Inspector Sinha.

Inspired by Kalyani Singh in Udaan

Chandana Sinha spent her childhood in Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, a Naxalite-infested area. Her father was a government employee.

Inspired by Kalyani Singh, the protagonist of the iconic television series Udaan(1988), she wanted to be a police officer.

"The opening music of the show was so rousing and motivational. It had such power. I used to be mesmerised by seeing her wear her boots and cap and wanted to be a police officer," she says.

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Inspector Sinha then moved to Bilaspur and Bhilai from where she appeared for RPF examinations and joined the force in 2010.

Her husband is a businessman and accompanied her to the award ceremony in Delhi.

In spite the long duty hours spent in between the station and office, she practices the violin, listens to music and enjoys cooking in her free time.

"The award is a recognition of our work," she says, "It has recharged us to even do better to save our children from harm."

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff