While female child trafficking is common in Jharkhand, large number of male child labourers is also trafficked to work at metro cities. As many as 13 such trafficking victims — belonging to the age group of 10-20 years — who were rescued and brought back to Jharkhand by NGOs and state police, tell harrowing tales of their stay at the garden city of India, Bangalore.
The bunch of 14 malechildren got a fresh lease of life as they landed on the soil of Jharkhand from Bangalore on Wednesday. The ordeal of the kids who were spending days and nights like slaves in Bangalore ended when the president of Talash association-- a Bangalore based social organisation -- called up CRY foundation (Bangalore) to inform about the kids on April 20. The rescue of the victims was carried on by Child Welfare Committee based in Bangalore in the third week of April. NGOs and state police coordinated between the two states (Jharkhand and Karnataka) and helped to bring back the victims to their home State.
Saresh Kumar (name changed), used to work at Bharti Nagar, Bangalore, as a helper at Panipuri stalls. “One day, when I came back from school, I could not find my parents at home, instead there were people who asked me to come with them. They said, ‘we’ll provide you with a really good job in this new place, you’ll be happy.’ I had no one to ask or seek consent from, so I chose to go with them,” Kumar, who was made to work for 14-16 hours’ everyday said in a frail voice.
Pinto (name changed), another victim of Child trafficking explaining his ordeal said that he was forced to work from 6 am till 11pm daily. “My owner used to wake me up in the morning, so that I could prepare the material (panipuri). Around 4pm, I Use to go sell the panipuri and come back by 11-12 pm,” he said. Kishori Yadav (the owner) and his son used to beat him if he incurred losses at the selling or ate few of the panipuri. He was provided food once in whole day.
Earlier, on April 20, CRY contacted all local NGO’s in Jharkhand, namely Rashtriya Jharkhand Seva Sansthan, Jago Foundation, Samarpan, Snehdhara foundation (Bangalore), and mutually decided to contact the parents of the victims and with their cooperation brought back the children back to Jharkhand. A rescue team headed by District Child Protection Officer (DCPO), Koderma Narendra Singh and five policemen and a sub inspector went to Bangalore for the mission.
Out of 13 children, nine were from Koderma, two from Giridih, one from Bokaro and one from Chatra. Abhijeet Mukherjee, head of development search team (Jharkhand) CRY, said that their plan was to rehabilitate the victims and look after their education so that they would not go back to such devastating standards of living.
It was also noted that parents of some children who willfully sent their children for the work, were promised cash Rs 1,200 per month by one Kishori Yadav, residing at Nalanda, Bihar, who appears to be an active member of the trafficking racket. Parents who were accused of sending their child for labour blamed poverty, illiteracy, as the reason behind their step.