In 2024 alone, inspector Chandana Sinha’s team intercepted 494 children, including 41 trafficked forlabour. Of them, 152 were rescued by her personally. The award recognised not a single act, but a systemshe has builtMEERUT: Children go missing from railway stations every week — lost, led away by traffickers, coaxed onto trains with promises of work, or running from something they can't name. Over the past three years, Railway Protection Force inspector Chandana Sinha has led the rescue of more than 1,500 of them across UP's rail network. In 2024 alone, her team intercepted 494 children -- including 41 trafficked for labour. Of these, 152 children were rescued by her personally. For that work, Indian Railways awarded her its highest service honour — the Ati Vishisht Rail Sewa Puruskar — at a ceremony in Delhi on January 9. Hours later, she returned to Lucknow. A report had come in—a child had been seen alone on Platform 3.The award recognised not a single act, but a system she built—one that now runs quietly across platforms, spotting what others miss. Sinha, who leads operations from Lucknow's Charbagh station, began without a blueprint. What started as isolated interventions—one missing child, one suspicious passenger—grew into a method: officers trained to read platforms, a network of informers, discreet NGO partnerships, and a protocol that moves fast and unnoticed.Her approach sharpened during a brief posting at New Delhi Railway Station in 2022, when she spent two hours searching for a woman and her three-year-old son lost in the Chhath Puja crowd. She found them on a bench—unharmed, unseen by hundreds who had passed. That search, she later said, changed what she looked for.In June 2024, she was asked to lead Operation Nanhe Farishte — Indian Railways' child rescue initiative. Her unit, mostly women officers, began intercepting children on trafficking routes from Bihar to Punjab and Haryana. Many were between 13 and 15, travelling with strangers. "They're told they'll get work, but most don't even know what kind," she said. "The traffickers are just the link."Rescues rarely begin with a tip. They start with posture, silence, or a look. "A child sitting alone. Someone too close. A face that's scared or blank. We notice the mismatch—between the child and the company they're in," she said. Once intercepted, it can take hours to speak with a child. Some stay silent. Others repeat a script. Officers wait. In one case, a 15-year-old girl ran away with a man twice her age. He fled as questions began. It took hours to persuade her to go to the Childline centre. "She said she wasn't going back. She also didn't know where else to go." Reunification, especially for girls, can be fraught. "Sometimes the parents plead with us not to register a case," Sinha said. "They're worried about honour. We have to counsel them too."In 2025, her team rescued 1,032 children, including 39 trafficked for labour and a six-year-old girl. Senior divisional security commissioner Devansh Shukla said her methods have become a model. "She's built a team that works on familiarity—not surveillance, but presence. Officers who know what to look for. Informers who know what to say."Much of this work falls outside the RPF's original mandate, which focused on railway property and passenger safety. But under Operation Nanhe Farishte and the anti-human trafficking initiative, Sinha's team now works with NGOs and district authorities, building records that often outlast a single journey.Deshraj Singh, project coordinator at the Association for Voluntary Action, part of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said: "Most RPF units weren't designed for this kind of work. But Chandana has prioritised it. She's taken ownership in a way that's rarely seen."Sinha, 41, grew up in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Her father was a government employee. She joined the RPF in 2010 after years of preparation, inspired by the 1980s TV series Udaan, based on IPS officer Kalyani Singh. "It stayed with me," she said. "That was the first time I saw a woman in uniform." She has served at the Railway Board, trained officers, and worked desk roles. She's camera-shy, avoids the spotlight, and has attempted exams for higher ranks without regret. "Whatever work is given, I do it fully," she said. She's also a mother to an 11-year-old daughter.