HYDERABAD: Seventeen minors, who were to be employed at hazardous units in the city, were rescued when they disembarked from a train at the Secunderabad railway station on Wednesday night.
“Ghumne ke liya aya” is what the minors were trained by traffickers to tell government agencies and voluntary organisations when they were rescued. When TOI spoke to the 17 minors, brought to Hyderabad from Bihar and other states and rescued on Wednesday night while they were getting off the Secunderabad-Danapur Express at the Secunderabad Railway Station, most of them said they came to the city for sightseeing and meet their relatives. On the other hand, the real picture of the story was otherwise.
After persistent interviewing by the agencies, some of the rescued boys spilt the beans, stating a middleman hired them for jobs in
Katedan industrial area and shoe-making units in
Old City. Shockingly, one of the rescued children is just ten years, while another minor was married and was travelling with his wife. The brokers, taking advantage of poverty and unemployment in some districts of Bihar and other states, were trafficking minors to Hyderabad to work in hazardous industries. A minor boy from
Kishangunj told TOI, “After primary, I dropped out of school. I used to work in fields for three months and get nominal pay. I was offered a job in an industry for ?20,000 per annum.”
The rescued boys, all aged below 18, are from districts like Kishangunj. West Champaran, East Champaran, Samastipur and Jehanabad and one from
Misripur in Uttar Pradesh and one each from Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
Hyderabad district child protection officer
Imtyaz Rahim said the rescued children were shifted to state-run Saidabad Home for Boys. The rescue was carried out by the joint effort of the women and child welfare, labour and Government Railway Police based on a tip-off given by child rights activist P Achyutha Rao. “We got the information that around 150 to 200 children are being brought stuffed in two general coaches, ” he said.
