More than 12,000 children were rescued from different places in the last five years and produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Krishna district.
The victims were from different States, including Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka and a few from neighbouring countries too.
Among the rescued children were those who ran away from home, kidnapped, forced into flesh trade, victim of child marriages, sold away or were employed as labourers.
Of the total 8,113 boys and 3,829 girls rescued from 2014 to 2018 (up to October-end) 5,365 were referred to Child Care Institutions (CCIs) and 5,547 were restored to their families.
Besides, nearly 300 children were rescued under ‘Operation Muskan’ by the officials and were reunited with their families in the neighbouring States.
Illegal homes?
Unconfirmed sources said that a few CCIs were running illegally and many children were kept in such homes.
The children were slogging in the shelter homes for the last few years.
“The children were rescued by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (RPF), South Central Railway (SCR), National Child Labour Project (NCLP), Police, Women Development and Child Welfare Department (WD&CW), NGOs and other department officials,” said CWC Krishna district chairman B.V.S. Kumar. Girls rescued from flesh trade and infants sold away by parents were provided shelter in the homes.
“We are taking the help of the officials, CWCs of other States and representatives of various NGOs in A.P. and the neighbouring States in restoring the rescued children to their parents,” Mr. Kumar said.
81 functional
“In all, 81 CCIs are running in Krishna district and a few applications are pending with the government for new homes. More than 2,000 children are staying in the institutions in the district,” Mr. Kumar said.
Some children belonging to other States were sent to their native places and handed over to their parents with the help of police and CWC, after verifying their details, Mr. Kumar said.
“We request the government to sanction more CCIs and open shelters in Krishna district as some hundreds of children are being rescued every year,” the CWC chairman said.