Oman Daily Observer

200 kids freed from Telangana brick kiln in big rescue bid

-

CHENNAI: The police rescued nearly 200 children, most of them under the age of 14, who had been found working in a brick kiln in Telangana in one of the biggest operations in the region, officials said on Wednesday.

The children were rescued from a brick kiln in Yadadiri district, 40 kilometres from state capital Hyderabad, as part of “Operation Smile”, a national campaign to tackle child labour and missing children.

The rescued children had moved from Odisha and were living and working with adults presumed to be their parents in the brick kiln, police said.

“We are not sure if the parents are genuine and there is a possibilit­y that some of the children were trafficked,” Mahesh Bhagwat, a police commission­er, said.

“The rescue teams spotted girls as young as seven and eight carrying bricks on their head. Some of the children were as young as four.”

In 2015, the Internatio­nal Labour Organizati­on (ILO) put the number of Indian child workers aged between five and 17 at 5.7 million, out of 168 million globally. More than half work in agricultur­e and over a quarter work in the manufactur­ing sector, the ILO said.

P Achyuta Rao, member of a local state body that has the task of protecting child rights, said Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had become hubs for child traffickin­g and child labour. “Last year more than 3,000 children were rescued, many from brick kilns and others from domestic servitude.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Oman