A total of 127 children were rescued by the Child Safety Net team of the non-profit organisation Bosco between July 2021 and January 2022. The children — boys in the 11-18 age group — hailed from poor families and had been trafficked into the city over the last six months, said Fr. Varghese Pallipuram, executive director, who supervised the rescue and rehabilitation programme.
As 22 children were under the age of 14, child labour cases were registered against the employers. Many of the rescued children tested for COVID-19.
They were made to work in garages or in factories forced to stitch bags and caps, dye saris, cut glass, and prepare ice cream and candy. Others were forced into scrap and construction work.
Of the 127 children rescued, 77 were from Bihar, while around 41 were from different parts of Karnataka. Three children had families in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and the rest from Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
The children had been brought to Bengaluru by agents who allegedly made advance payments to their parents. “They were forced to work from 8 a.m. till late night in small, gloomy and suffocating conditions, with little or no medical care. They were not even provided face masks, exposing them to the deadly COVID-19 virus,” said the NGO. City police were also involved in the rescue efforts.
They were not permitted to talk to their parents without the consent of the employers. On average, they were paid miserly wages of ₹4,000 to ₹8,000 a month.
The children were brought to the Child Welfare Committee which has booked the employers under the J.J. Act and also under the Child Labour Act.
The parents of some of the rescued boys were summoned and asked to submit an undertaking that they would not force their children to work. “But we have little hope as poverty-stricken families are lured by the assurance that their children will have three meals a day and a decent income,” said P.N. Basavaraju, rescue coordinator.
