RailEnquiry

JAIPUR: In a major rescue effort, the government railway police (GRP) recovered nearly 168 children between 5 and 12 years of age from the Ajmer-Sealdah Express on Saturday.The children were taken from Jaipur to Kolkata to be employed as labourers in factories.The police also arrested a dozen people, alleged to be agents in child trafficking.Acting on a tip-off by the Bharatpur district collector, the GRP officials entered the train at 4.30pm when it reached Bharatpur and started checking the compartments. The children were found in the train’s general compartment.“At least 168 children were found in the train who told the police that they were being taken to Kolkata to work in factories. In Jaipur too, they were working as labourers,” said Gyan Prakash Shukla, district collector, Bharatpur.The collector said that some NGOs informed him about agents taking large number of children to Kolkata to work as cheap labour in factories.“Many children were made to sit under the seats of the compartment,” Shukla added.

He said cases under various sections of the IPC have been registered against the agents.

“The children will be kept at Apna Ghar, an NGO working for the orphan and runaway children. We will try to get the contact details of their parents and follow the legal procedure to finally hand over the children to them,” he added.

GRP police said that majority of the children said they were sold off to the agents by their parents. “Once we hand them over to their parents, they will be again sold to agents. It’s a vicious circle,” said a senior officer of the GRP.

According to the police, these children are from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.