Mumbai: More girls were found to be trafficked than boys, as per Mumbai Government Railway Police (GRP) records, over the past five years. Police said 58 boys and 109 girls were found to be trafficked between 2021 and April 2026.The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the GRP registered 167 offences of trafficking of children in this period. Of these offences, 97% (162 cases) were solved by the AHTU. Five cases are still under investigation, while 34 cases are pending before courts after being chargesheeted.Police said runaway children who arrive in Mumbai on trains looking for employment or attracted by the glamour of the city could sometimes end up in wrong hands. Railways has put together a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for handling cases of children in need of care and protection. Within 24 hours of an unaccompanied minor being found on Railway premises, the police must produce him/ her before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).Last month, the railway police received a tip-off from a social worker about more than a dozen children travelling on their own in three coaches of the Asansol-Mumbai Express. Security agencies were alerted at Itarsi, Bhopal, Aurangabad and Kalyan. Though initial searches yielded nothing, the vigilance paid off when seven children were finally spotted inside a coach at Thane station. Some had come to see relatives, some for sightseeing, and others for employment. The children were safely escorted to the CWC at Ulhasnagar.In a separate incident in April, a 14-year-old boy from Jharkhand was spotted alone near the general coach of a long-distance train at Kalyan, while police were carrying out searches in the train having been tipped off about 10 kids travelling on their own. The teen told the police he was in Mumbai for touring the city. Within minutes, police had his family on the phone and on learning they would take long to arrive, the teenager was taken before the CWC.
