In crackdown on child labour, 17 kids rescued in Udaipur village
ACTION Children being taken to Gujarat to make them work in cotton fields; 2 booked on charges of buying kids for slavery
JAIPUR: The Udaipur police rescued 17 children on Thursday when they were being taken to Gujarat for working in cotton fields, officials said.
This is the first action after chief minister Ashok Gehlot issued instructions for effective steps to check child labour and child trafficking from three districts bordering Gujarat.
The CM reviewed measures to check these in Dungarpur, Banswara and Udaipur districts after a vernacular daily’s sting operation showing auction of children between 5 and 16 years in villages in these three districts on the border of Gujarat.
According to the 2017 report of National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), Rajasthan is on top for human trafficking. The 2011 census ranked the state third in India for child labourers. The census said 850,000 children
DHANPAT SINGH, Kotda SHO
below 14 years were child labourers in Rajasthan.
Udaipur superintendent of police Kailash Bishnoi said all SHOS had been ordered to take effective action against child labour.
On Thursday morning, Kotda police station got a tip-off that some children from Hansreta and Wasela villages were being taken to Gujarat to work in a cotton field. Following this, Kotda SHO Dhanpat Singh and a member of district’s child welfare committee (CWC) left for Mamer in plainclothes and instructed staff of Mamer police outpost to set up barricading. Around 8.30am, the police saw a white pickup coming from Mamer village. It had 17 children and two passengers.
“The children told us that Laxman Kagva, who was driving the pickup, was taking them to work in cotton fields for Rs 200 a day. Laxman said he got Rs 50 for every child. He takes them to the fields in the morning and brings them back to their village in the evening,” the SHO said.
The children were sent to the CWC, which first sent them to a temporary shelter and later handed them over to their families, said CWC chairperson Dhruv Charan.
The Udaipur SP said t he driver of the pickup and the man who had hired the kids had been booked on charges of buying children for slavery. “We have registered a case under sections 370 and 374 of the IPC and section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act,” Bishnoi said.
Earlier, 25 children were rescued by the anti-human trafficking unit when the kids were being taken to Surat to work as bonded labourers.
The Hi ndi d a i l y ’ s s t i ng showed children were available for Rs 500 for a day. Out of this, the middleman charges Rs 50 for a child, the driver who ferries them to and from Gujarat takes Rs 50 per child, and the gang pays Rs 500 to police every day. Children get Rs 200 as daily wage for doing odd jobs in factories and agricultural fields.
The CM a s ked t he home department to set up anti-human trafficking units in these border areas with round-the-clock availability of police or home guard. He asked district administrations, police and transport department to conduct joint check on trafficking of children to Gujarat. The authorities have been asked to book offenders under IPC, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986; the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act of 2015; and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976.
Children told us that Laxman Kagva, who was driving the pickup, was taking them to work in cotton fields for Rs 200 a day. Laxman said he got Rs 50 for every child.