Some of the children had been living and working in the room for two-three months.
Jaipur:
Brought to the city on the promise of education and work, 22 children from Bihar were crammed into a 10-foot by 10-foot room and forced to make bangles for 18 hours a day. If they fell sick or dared to complain, they would be thrashed by the owner of the bangle-making unit.
This is what a team from the Child Welfare Committee in Rajasthan and NGO Naya Savera found when they got a tip-off and rescued the children from the unit in Jaipur’s Bhatta Basti area on June 11.
Members from the team said 26 people were rescued from the unit, 22 of whom were minors. Many of the children were between the ages of 7 and 11. While some had been working and living in the room for two-three months, others had arrived 10-15 days ago.
The team’s members said the door to the three-storey building was locked and they had to jump in through a window. The unit’s owner, identified only as Guddu, managed to escape and the police are on the lookout for him.
The children told NDTV that they were brought to Jaipur by agents who told their parents they would work and study.
A 11-year-old boy, who was rescued, said, “If we complained, we would be beaten. If we fell ill and couldn’t work, we would be beaten. We were allowed to speak to our parents twice in a month, and that too on speaker.”
“We were instructed not to tell our parents that anything was wrong. I told my mother once that my stomach was hurting, and Guddu beat us,” he added.
Akhilesh Maheshwari from NGO Naya Savera said, “It is poverty that drives these children here. Their parents are misled. Some of them are given Rs 500 and some are given Rs 2,000 or more and the children are sent here to work.”
“We will send the children back to their homes, but under the escort of Child Welfare Committee officials. They will be handed over to the Social Welfare Board in Bihar, who will follow up on their condition for a year to ensure they are not trafficked again,” he added.
