KAWARDA: Thirteen children belonging to the Baiga, a particularly vulnerable tribal group, have been rescued from bonded labor in Chhattisgarh’s Kaberdham district, police said on Thursday.
They added that eight people, including two alleged traffickers and six business owners, were arrested during the rescue operation carried out on Wednesday.
The accused allegedly lured parents of minor children from the Baiga community in Thawapani village in Bhuramdeo district with money and took them to several villages in the district for forced labor, Kaberdham Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Singh Chavai told PTI.
“After we received the report, we launched the operation. 13 children aged between 8 and 15 years, from different villages, who were forced into bonded labour, have been rescued. An FIR has been registered and eight people, including two traffickers and six employers, have been arrested so far,” he added.
Another police official said the rescued children told authorities that six to seven months ago, one of the accused, Ravi Yadav, convinced their parents with promises of money and took them to various locations where they were forced to graze cattle and look after livestock.
Children work from 6am to 9am and again from noon to 7pm daily. Their parents allegedly received their salaries between $1000 and $He said that 2,000 pounds per month, while the children themselves did not receive any wages.
Seven of those arrested have been identified as Ravi Yadav, Ramu Yadav, Baddi Yadav, Kanhaiya Yadav, Ramphaal Yadav, Ram Bihari Yadav and Rupesh Yadav, police said.
A case has been registered at Puramdeo police station under provisions relating to human trafficking, bonded labour, child labor and Juvenile Justice Act, and further investigations are underway, they said.
“The rescue highlights the increasing vulnerability of children from marginalized tribal communities to trafficking networks,” said Manish Sharma, senior director of Voluntary Action Society, a child protection NGO. “These networks prey on extreme poverty and lure families with small amounts of money and false promises.”
He also praised the quick response of the police after the NGO alerted them about child labour.
This article was generated from an automated news feed without any modifications to the text.
