RPF forms special cell for Covid orphans

Nagpur: Railway protection force (RPF), Central Railways, has formed a special cell to extend sensitive care to Covid orphans — children whose one or both parents died of the virus — rescued from the railway premises. RPF, the railways’ security wing, has undertaken the benevolent decision across the nation.
The cell, comprising two women constables, has been asked to ensure the children of Covid victims are rescued with due care and counselled before being engaged in other formalities. The cops too have been trained in special counselling sessions, so as to ensure the children are being attended sensitively keeping in mind the trauma of the pandemic, which had left them shattered by claiming lives of their near ones.
Senior RPF divisional security commissioner Ashutosh Pandey said the priority of special cell would be to counsel the Covid orphans first, before completing the rest of the due procedures of rescue and shelter. “The Covid orphans have witnessed the death of their parents, apart from the devastating effects of the pandemic which warrants them to be handled with much sensitive care and empathy,” he said during an online press conference last week.
Pandey added, “Our RPF team would ensure the orphans are relieved of their trauma before presenting them to the child welfare committee, NGO interventions and so on.” He also said that RPF had been extra cautious about unattended or single children in the railway premises.
It’s learnt that RPF’s Narkhed post in-charge had extended his assistance to two sisters who had lost their family members amid the pandemic. “The help was extended by RPF senior officers on humanitarian grounds, though there was no link of this case to railways,” said the RPF’s CR division chief.
Pandey said though there were no Covid orphans traced in his division so far, RPF has in the last one year rescued around 32 other children from railways premises.
Apart from the Covid orphans, RPF has also broached a special drive against ticketing agents resorting to illegal means for earning hefty commissions during the ongoing rush in the railways. “With the labourers returning to their native places like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, unscrupulous ticketing agents have started getting active, eyeing substantial commissions during this peak season. We have rounded up 10 ticketing agents and recovered e-tickets worth more than Rs1.25 lakh from them,” said Pandey.