Hyderabad: The anti-human trafficking unit (AHU) of Rachakonda police have rescued 15 children who were being exploited for labor work by two factories in Hayathnagar, police officials said on Saturday.
In one of them, police raided a trading company in Pasumamula village in the outskirts of the city on Friday and rescued five minor girls aging 8 to 15 years based on a tip-off received. They found that five minor girls were trafficked by the owner of the company, who was exploiting them to clean empty liquor bottles. The owner was paying them 25 paisa for cleaning each liquor bottle.
Later, the police arrested the owner of the company who was identified as Channabathina (30), a resident of Pasumamula village of Ranga Reddy district. The Hayathnagar police also registered a case under section 370 (a), 374 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 79 of Juvenile Justice Act 2015, and section 14 of the child labor Act 1986.
In another case, the AHU team rescued 9 boys and 1 girl aging between 8 to 17 years on the same day after the authorities conducted a raid on a plastering company here. They found that children were being detained in sheds and were being exploited to work for 14 hours.
The police have booked a case against the owner of the company who is identified as Etukala Jagan Mohan Reddy, and is still absconding.
Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said, “Mohan has been running a POP company styled as Sri Pavan Putra Plaster Company at Kala Nagar and another accused Laxman has been also running similar business styled as Laxman’s Plaster Company by taking a shed on the rental basis under the limits of the same village.”
In both companies, the accused persons brought children to Hyderabad from Maharashtra and Bihar by paying an informal amount to their parents. Here, they detained the children in a temporary shade to manufacture the interior Plaster of Paris sheets.
The commissioner also stated that for such works, the owners of companies utilize the service of laborers for more than 14 hours, which is inhuman and contrary to the labor laws. Further, the wages of the children are also less than the actual wages i.e. seven rupees only per foot of the POP sheet.
The rescue operations and arrests were made by the operation smile team of Vanasthalipuram Division with the assistance of the District Child Probation Unit, Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Spandana Children society members.
