July 2, 2021, Ahmedabad: 104 children sent outside the State of Bihar to work as laborers in private factories of Rajasthan last year, have finally been rescued and are likely to reach Bihar by train on Friday.
The news comes as a relief to parents of young children who were transported to Rajasthan as child laborers by child traffickers operating in the state and is seen as one of the greatest achievements of the Bihar state government.
The rescued children belong to different districts of Bihar. There are at least 29 children from Gaya, 17 from Sitamarhi, 11 from Samastipur, 14 from Nalanda, 9 from Muzaffarpur, 4 from Katihar, 3 from Jehanabad, Darbhanga and Madhubani each and 1 each from Vaishali, Nawada, Saharsa, and Saran districts, with 7 children’s addresses yet to be identified.
These 104 children, who are speculated to be transported to Rajasthan by bus, were rescued in the months of January-February 2021 with the help of Bihar and Rajasthan state joint police forces but failed to return due to the pandemic.
The children were rescued from different bangle factories operating in Jaipur. Since January, they were in Government Juvenile and Observation Home Jaipur, Satya Shelter Home, Tabor Shelter Home, Jankala Sahitya Manch, New Sabera Shelter Home, Mother Chhaya Shelter Home, and Child Labour Children Home, Jaipur.
According to Police reports, at least 428 minor girls and 2,342 minor boys have been rescued from the year 2010-December 2020. However, the number of children rescued had rapidly declined last year.