Eight minor boys were rescued while allegedly being trafficked to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, from the railway station here by members of an NGO working for children.
Childline’s Berhampur Coordinator, Prabhu Prasad Patra, said the boys, all school drop outs aged between 12 and 16 years, were rescued yesterday.
Six of the boys from Digapahandi were being taken to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, while two others hailing from Polasara were waiting at Berhampur station to go to Kerala.
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They had train tickets with them.
“The boys could not tell the names of the traffickers, who fled from the spot,” said Patra.
The rescued children will be united with their parents after being produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), he said.
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Childline’s Ganjam district Director Sudhir Sabat said as the summer vacation is on, the traffickers are moving in rural areas to lure children.
It is for the second time in a week that Childline activists rescued children from the railway station.
On April 25, they rescued 16 children (14 girls and two boys) from the Puri-Tirupati express. While nine girls were from Khurda district, seven others — five girls and two boys — were from Gajapati district.
The children were being taken to Andhra Pradesh to work in prawn processing units.
The traffickers escaped from the railway station.