How Twitter Helped Save a Teen From Human Traffickers in India

Indian Railways officials responded promptly after a passenger’s relative tweeted out the alert.

For many of us, Twitter’s mainly useful for live-tweeting debates or catching up on the latest news headlines. But a tweet saved one girl in India from becoming yet another victim of human trafficking.

Radha Lohar, a 19-year-old from West Bengal, was riding a South Central Railway train from Hyderabad to New Delhi on Tuesday when she handed another passenger a letter that read she was being taken “against her wish” to the city, according to The Independent.

After informing the Railway Protection Force, the passenger sent a picture of the message to his relative, Divyansh Khunteta, who then tweeted it to the Ministry of Railways.

@Divyansh131 Matter notified for immediate action @IR_IGCNI

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) January 5, 2016

Indian Railways officials were quick to act on the alert, notifying the train operator before the Railway Protection Force stopped the train at Ramagundam station and apprehended the suspected kidnappers.

“The timely action of the railway officials, who acted on a tweet, enabled [the] rescue of an orphan girl,” said a statement from South Central Railways.

Lohar had been working with a job placement agency before being taken to Delhi. A local NGO, known as Pratham, has her under protective custody with plans to take her back to West Bengal soon.

Orphan girl rescued:Tweets by co-passenger about a girl being forcibly taken to Delhi https://t.co/6EAkK0v6N3 pic.twitter.com/rpp1uW39b5

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) January 6, 2016

According to the 2014 Global Slavery Index, nearly 36 million people are enslaved worldwide. With India being home to more than a third of those kept in modern-day slavery, government entities, NGOs, and citizens are working to come up with solutions to the nationwide problem—even through a tweet.