Teens in Odisha Forced to Collect Corpses from Train Tracks

Bhubaneshwar: For three years, a pair of homeless teens, were allegedly forced to lift dead bodies from the railway tracks in Cuttack by the local Railway Police. They have been rescued today by volunteers with a local non-profit organisation.

The boys, 17 and 15, were rescued by volunteers of the government-run Childline from the railway station in Cuttack, just 20 kilometres from the state capital of Bhubaneshwar.

The older boy has said that he personally hauled 100 bodies from the station to a local hospital where they were forced to cut open the corpses for post-mortems by doctors.

The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has launched a probe into the allegations.

"We have also directed the hospital authorities, railway police and other concerned to investigate the matter and submit a report to the committee in 15 days," said Bikash Mohapatra, the chairman of the committee.  

If the children refused to do the job, railway police personal allegedly beat them up. Police were paying them about Rs.300-Rs.500  for moving  each body, the 17-year-old said.

The teens are now in the care of a government-run shelter.