Parents in different parts of the country, mostly from Bihar, are selling kids to child traffickers for Rs 500 in exchange of fake promises made by them who show them fancy dreams of their kids studying higher and earning well.
However, the plight of these children remains pathetic as after being sold to bangle units, they are forced to work for 18 hours at a stretch while being given food once a day.
Neither their parents nor these kids get any remuneration which is promised to them.
These details were furnished by officials from the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which has helped in rescuing around 189 kids from Rajasthan in June.
"Traffickers these days have changed the trends and are trafficking kids in buses instead of trains earlier and hence it has become challenging to trace and rescue kids," one of the officials said, adding that "money making is the ultimate issue of these traffickers".
When asked about education of these kids, he said: "The children have been sent to child care institutions on the directions of the Child Welfare Committee at different districts and now the child welfare committee shall take a call on where and how the education can be arranged for these kids."
Meanwhile, another official from Bachpan Bachao Andolan who helped in rescuing these kids, said: "A total of 189 children working as child labourers under the age group of 8 years to 17 years, have been rescued from Rajasthan out of which 72 are from Jaipur. Most of these children were working under bangle making units."
In fact, 2,295 kids have been rescued from Rajasthan in the last five years out of which 1,269 children are rescued from Jaipur which is again surprising, he added.
The maximum children rescued are from Bihar and a few are from Rajasthan as well; mostly they are engaged in bangle making, automobile garage, dhabas, stitching units, he said.
He informed that most of the traffickers come from Bihar and they have changed their modus operandi since Covid. While earlier trains used to be the most common mode of trafficking, now, these traffickers have shifted to buses.
"They book sleeper coach buses to traffic these children, he said.
Meanwhile, Manish Sharma, Director of Bachpan Bacho Andolan, said: "June is the action month when our entire team is working relentlessly in every corner of the country to free children from child labour. We are rescuing children every day and yet there are many who are still languishing in child labour.
"Even as the state governments and police team have been helping us immensely, our fight is against the societal mindset about child labour."
(With inputs from IANS)
