Indian police rescue child slaves from workshops
Print Edition
INDIAN police have rescued hundreds of child slaves as young as six during days of raids on workshops in the central city of Hyderabad, a senior officer said yesterday.
Police found 120 children, some of them sick, underweight and traumatized, during the most recent raids late on Thursday on bangle-making and other workshops, as part of a citywide crackdown on child slavery, the officer said.
“They have chronic skin diseases and were underfed. They are in trauma and visibly shaken,” V. Satyanarayana, deputy police commissioner for south Hyderabad, said.
“They were kept in dingy rooms with no ventilation and exposure to harmful gases,” the commissioner said.
“The campaign against bonded labor and trafficking will continue,” he said.
The children complained of being forced to work 16 hours a day without breaks, and were threatened with violence and no food if they disobeyed orders, the officer said.
Many of them were taken from the impoverished northern state of Bihar last year after their parents sold them to traffickers for between 5,000 rupees (US$80) and 10,000 rupees, according to rescuers.
Police began a clampdown last week against dozens of workshops, after tip-offs from child rights activists. About 220 children were rescued when police stormed similar workshops in the city’s south, Satyanarayana said.
Thirty-one traffickers and agents have also been arrested and charged with child slavery, while police are making efforts to reunite children with their families, he said.
TV footage showed cramped and dirty workshops. Children were seen huddled in a room, looking bewildered and being watched over by police.
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