Rescuing Railway Children: Reuniting Families from India′s Railway Platforms

Rescuing Railway Children focuses on runaway children in India who have used trains to take them away from home, and who live on railway station platforms and in trains. It presents the issues and challenges of reaching out to these ‘railway children’, particularly through the experiences of Sathi, an NGO based in Bangalore. This organisation has chosen to work with children on railway platforms across India with the intention of reuniting them with families wherever possible.

The book deals with platform outreach and focuses on shelters close to the stations. The reuniting process is examined from a practical as well as a child-rights perspective. It expands the horizons of analysis by presenting the system prevailing in the UK as a counterpoint, thus highlighting the concerns and current thinking on institutional care and fostering at an international level.