After about five months, the Railways restarted its child rescue operation at Pune Railway Station premises with the help of the Department of Women and Child Development (WCD) and SATHI, an NGO. After the kidnapping and rape of a minor girl from Chhattisgarh at an illegal shelter home run by an NGO with the support of a now arrested RPF constable had come to light, all rescue operations were de facto stopped. Following the controversy, the Pune division halted the NGO's work since then and dismantled the CHILDLINE (1098) booth. Speaking on the occasion of the child rescue operations being restored— which was conducted by SATHI on Thursday at the DRM office, Divisional Security Commissioner (RPF) Jyoti Mani said that to rescue a child, the NGO's role is very important, and the Railways stands by such NGOs. “We have started rescuing vulnerable children around the station premises under the Vatsalya Mission. A total of six NGO volunteers will be deployed along with the support of WCD. The booth for the child helpline will be constructed soon,” he said. SATHI is a national NGO working primarily with lost, runaway, and separated children found on railway platforms across India. In Pune, SATHI has been functional since 2012 under permission from the Central Railways and the WCD. DCPU formation delay Since September 1, after the state government assumed control of CHILDLINE 1098 as well as the responsibility to rescue children, there was the expectation it would be transferred District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) staff, thereby replacing the NGO. After this, Pune Railway Station experienced erratic operations at a booth for rescuing runaway and vulnerable children, but so far no DCPU staff has been deployed. In December, Yogesh Jawade, Assistant Commissioner of the Women and Child Development department in Pune, had officially announced that the DCPU will be formed to assist the NGO but has not yet completed the recruitment. At the time, Jawade said the lack of recruitment was due to concerns over lower salaries. At the programme held on Thursday, Basavaraj Shali, director of SATHI, said that the NGO had 12 members at the station, but now there were only six. Shali added that these six will work with six other DCPU staff members in the months to come.
