HYDERABAD:In surprise raids conducted on Saturday, 19 boys and 2 girls working as child labourers were rescued from various business units in Kishanbagh.
The children, belonging to the age group of 10 to 17 years, were found to be working in polluted environment, posing direct threat to health of the children. The rescued children are sent to government homes located in the city. The raids were conducted by Telangana Crime Investigation Department (CID), District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), Bahadurpura Police and Jharkhand police.
Jharkhand police reached the city with a list of missing children, with an expectation to find them in the city and other parts. “A convergence meeting was organised by CID, Jharkand police and DCPU on Saturday. The raids were conducted immediately along with Bahadurpura police and we were able to rescue 21 children,” said Imtiyaz Rahim, Hyderabad district’s child protection officer. However, none from Jharkhand were rescued during the raids. Five of the children were from Bihar, one from Uttar Pradesh, two from Maharashtra and 12 from Telangana.
“The children were working in steel cutting industry, petrol bunks and bakeries,” said Harish Kaushik, Bahadurpura inspector.
He said that the Child Welfare Department officials are collecting details of owners who employed the children, and after they lodged complaints, cases will be filed. Another official from the Child WelfareDepartment said that some children were found working in extremely polluted environment of plastic bottle recycling units.