Trafficked for forced labour, 15 minors rescued

LUCKNOW: Fifteen minor boys who were allegedly being trafficked for forced labour were rescued by police on Wednesday morning in Jaunpur district of east Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Five adults including driver of a private bus in which the minor boys were being moved, have been arrested.

Deputy superintendent of police (SP) Vijay Singh confirmed the development.

“All the rescued children are males aged between 11 and 17 years of age. All of them belong to Madhepura district of Bihar and were being taken to Delhi on pretext of a job,” he said.

The rescued children were handed over to district child line for care while the police registered an FIR in the matter.

The police official said the rescue act was initiated on the basis of an intelligence input that some minors were being trafficked in buses.

An NGO working against child labour too had alerted the police which quickly acted on the inputs.

Police teams from four police stations in the district were pressed into to identify the buses and rescue the children. “We intercepted a private bus on the basis of intelligence input and a total of 38 people including minors were found travelling in it. After questioning we rescued the boys and sent them to shelter homes after the mandatory covid testing,” Singh said.

While police officials refused to divulge the names of the accused, some officials requesting anonymity said the accused lived in the same area from where the minors belong.

“The modus operandi of such traffickers is common. They were known to the minors and even to their parents in some cases. They develop a trust and then ask them to send them to large cities where they could earn money. Because these children come from very poor families they fall in the trap laid by the traffickers.

“Once they arrive in the city, these minors are forced into labour or other illegal activities,” said Deepak Mishra, a child rights activist.

This is the third such operation in East UP this month. Seven minor boys were recovered in Gorakhapur and two others were recovered from Gonda earlier this month.

The minors were all from Bihar and were taken to Delhi on pretext of jobs.