Mumbai: 83 boys, who were being sold to factories, rescued from LTT

83 BOYS were rescued from being forced into working as labourers in factories dotting the city and its suburbs The massive rescue operation yesterday was realised at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus LTT railway station after an NGO received a tipoff about them being brought to the city from BiharThe children will be sent to the Dongri childrenrsquos home and after verification to their homes in villages PicShadab KhanThe RaxaulLTT Express was scheduled to arrive at LTT at 6 am but was delayed by four hours About 20 workers from the NGO Pratham along with Kurla Government Railway Police GRP lay in wait When the train finally chugged into platform number 3 all hell broke looseChildren had been brought to the city in huge numbers and as the trafficking agents realised there was heavy police presence they scurried to find an escape route Many agents managed to escape with children but some also abandoned the children In all police rescued 83 boys and arrested 38 trafficking agents from the spotChildhood destroyedMost of the children are from villages in Raxaul Motihari in Bihar bordering Nepal Six rescued children are from the neighbouring country All of them had been sold off by their parents and were going to be sent to zari and leather purse factories in Bhiwandi Kurla Madanpura Byculla etc The kids are anywhere between six and 18 years old14yearold Salim name changed told midday ldquoMy family is huge we are seven brothers and sisters My family is extremely poor and cannot afford to raise me They sent me and a few other children here with a manrdquoThe agent had instructed Salim that should the police question him he was to tell them that the agent was his uncle Salim was on his way to becoming a zari worker in Madanpura but his agent fled when police caught SalimAnother 11yearold had been rescued in the past and ended up coming to the city for the second time ldquoMy family is very poor and therefore they had sent me to work in Mumbai at Dagad chawl near MahalaxmiI used to get up at 6 in the morning We would start work at 9 am and continue till 1 in the night They would give us rice and dal which we would have to cook by ourselvesI earned Rs 200 per week I spent some amount on myself and sent the rest to my parents in the village through an agent I donrsquot know how much money must have reached them till nowrdquo the boy recounted Nineyearold Nitinrsquos name changed parents had sold him off to a trafficking agent for a mere Rs 4000The agent told the police that Nitin has several brothers and sisters and their dire financial situation forced them to sell their son Nitin was to be sent to a leather purse factory in Dharavi A 14yearold child cried inconsolably at the stationHe had been sent by his parents on the pretext of a tour of Mumbai but the agent told the police that he had been sold off for Rs 5000 Upon knowing the truth the boy wept with despair The rescued children will now be sent to the Dongri Childrenrsquos Home where they will have to undergo a lengthy verification processSenior Police Inspector Vijay Dhopavkar of Kurla GRP said ldquoThe accused agents will be arrested and charged under relevant sections The kids will be sent to the Dongri remand home and after verification to their village The process will take over a monthrdquoNGO speakThe rescue was possible due to a tipoff received by Pratham which already had a team working in Raxaul In fact ten children had been rescued from being put on the same train at Raxaul Even then some agents and their children alighted at Kalyan since it is closer to BhiwandiNGO worker Sharmishta Khandagale said ldquoThese kids are forced into human trafficking and are not paid They are given little food to eat they work at a stretch for 16 hours they donrsquot get tired and their small hands prove to be very useful for Zari work and making leather purses They are even harassed at these factoriesrdquoKhandagale further added ldquoThe families these children come from are huge and extremely poor By selling off these children the parents earn money and the child will also earn here Moreover he gets to eat and a place to stay unlike in his own villagerdquo Khandagale believed that had more police been deployed more children couldrsquove been rescued and more agents arrested