Sealdah Station: A ‘Child-friendly Station’ or a Deadly Trap of Traffickers?

News flash: In India, a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes.

Narratives of abuse are poignant and acutely disturbing. At times they appear as stabbing headlines – ‘an 18 month toddler was raped in Kolkata’ but unfortunately most of them gets died down under the overpowering layers of ignominy, societal pressure and toxic norms and beliefs.

Every 8 minutes a child goes missing!

Scores of children are being abducted from nation’s different railway stations, only to be grasped into the claws of dark and dingy world of prostitution and sex trade later on. In Kolkata, Sealdah railway station is a den of unscrupulous sex traffickers and brokers who waits patiently only for their next prey. Every day, flesh trade takes place, in spite of applying several stringent measures from the government and various NGOs.

Exact figures of how many goes missing from the station premises is difficult to fathom, but officials said that between June 2016 and May 2017, 1628 minor victims were rescued, in which 134 were young girls and the youngest of them was a four year-old kid. Now, you’d be more than surprised to know that Sealdah station is a child-friendly station in India equipped with a functional Childline kiosk dedicated to give assistance 24/7, a shelter home for kids in distress and several other child safety-oriented facilities, like patrolling teams to curb child trafficking in India.

Missing is a non-profit organization with an operational base in Kolkata; they uses Art as a form of expression. Their child trafficking campaigns are powerful and perfect to curb the issue from the grassroots level.