PATNA: A total number of 900 children including 25 bonded labourers rescued from different bangle manufacturing factories in Rajasthan's Jaipur were brought back to Gaya by a train on Sunday evening.
The children rescued were trafficked from different districts of Bihar to work in the many bangle manufacturing factories in Jaipur.
Confirming this, the director of Bihar social welfare, Raj Kumar, said that the FIRs were lodged against the employers as well as the traffickers, who had lured children and transported them illegally to Jaipur.
" we are coordinating with some organizations in to keep check on movement of children to other states wherein they are enaged or forced to work as child labours or bonded labourers".," he said.
The children were boarded in the train they were essential screening was done under COVID-19 precautions.
"All of them have been brought to Patna from where they would be sent to their respective districts through in an official manner", he said.
Meanwhile, Suresh Kumar, executive director of Centre DIRECT, a Bihar-based organisation fighting child labour and rebuilding lives of child labour survivors, said that these children have been rescued by Jaipur-based anti trafficking unit with the support of organisations through multiple operations carried out during the lockdown.
"Among 900 children rescued and brought back, 25 were working as bonded labourers while the rest - aged between 10 and 13, were engaged as child labourers in the bangle manufacturing factories in Jaipur", Suresh Kumar said.
30 children rescued belong to Muzaffarpur district while 21 were from Vaishali, 19 from Samastipur, and 17 where from Gaya and the were from various districts.
The children looked malnourished and exhausted upon their arrival. Some of them alleged that they were meted out inhuman treatment and forced to work for more than 15 hours.
One of the children said, "I was getting only Rs 1000- Rs 2000 as payment, and if I asked to go home, I was beaten up.
Kumar said that 508 child labourers of Bihar were rescued in 2018-19 from Jaipur by the anti-trafficking units of Rajasthan with the support of Bihar government and other organisations including the Centre DIRECT.
In 2018-19, the highest number of 156 children rescued were from Gaya district where from the trafficking of children for factories is reported to be rampant.