'One of the recommendations that we would like to give to the railway ministry is to allot a space to NGOs working on child rights so that they can have direct access to these children and help them,' Bajaj said.

The lack of women constables on the platforms is another factor.

In the words of a Government Railway Police (GRP) official, there is only 'one woman GRP officer and four Railway Protection Force (RPF) officers' in the 16 New Delhi railway station platforms.

'It is generally seen that children respond better to women, especially if it is a girl child. In these cases, the children found on platforms are already traumatised and they need to be handled with care. Therefore, there is definitely a need for more women beat officers,' Bajaj told IANS.

The railway police are severely understaffed. This is probably why child rights bodies like the Salaam Balak Trust say they received 381 children in a year at their contact point in the New Delhi railway station, but railway police personnel say they hardly find more than one abandoned child on a platform in a week.

Pramod Niming, a woman GRP inspector at the New Delhi railway station, said her duty, among other things, was to track abandoned kids on the platform and put them in contact with the child welfare committee, take him or her for a medical test and then either send the child back home or put him or her in a shelter.

'I am the only one doing this job and it does get hectic. However, I don't find many runaway kids or those abandoned or lost at the railway station. Probably, one child in a week or 10 days,' she told IANS.

She also admitted to not being much aware of the JJ Act.

Bajaj said, 'Based on this visit we will write a report and send all the recommendations to the ministry of women and child development and also the railway ministry. For effective implementation of laws relating to child rights and protection, all ministries should come together, even those of the railways and labour.'

(Azera Rahman can be contacted at azera.p@ians.in)