A team headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ramakanta Sai came to Andhra Pradesh with a list of 149 minors and has been visiting CCIs in various districts.
Following the directions of officers of the Crime Against Women and Children Wing (CAW&CW), the team comprising Mr. Sai, Inspector Raghunath Majhi, Assistant Sub-Inspector Balabhadra Naik, Protection Officer-Non-Institutional Care (PO-NIC) Balakrushna Mallick and women constables Daima Pulaka and V. Sarmistha inspected the homes.
“Under ‘Operation Anweshan’, a special drive has been launched to trace missing, trafficked and child labourers from Odisha in 17 States. In Andhra Pradesh, we have traced 64 boys and girls and repatriated five children so far,” Mr. Sai said.
“A few minors who went missing were kept in CCIs by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP) and NGOs through the Child Welfare Committees (CWCs). While some children were trafficked, a few were engaged for work by mediators,” Mr. Mallick said.
Children below 18 years of age were found working in industries, brick kilns, hotels, factories, aqua processing and packing units, catering establishments, mechanic sheds, shops and other establishments. Andhra Pradesh officials rescued the child labourers during raids and kept them safely in shelter homes after producing them before the CWCs, Mr. Mallick said.
According to official sources, 104 children were staying in CCIs in Srikakulam, while some others were housed in Vizianagaram, Kakinada and other districts. In some cases, parents had put their children to work because of poverty.
“With the help of some NGOs and local officials, we traced and rescued three children from shelter homes in NTR district, and one each from Prakasam and East Godavari districts,” Mr. Sai told The Hindu on Friday.
“A boy rescued from a CCI had been staying in Andhra Pradesh since he was five years old and is now studying in Class IX. Many children have been staying in shelter homes for three years or more and have forgotten their parents, native places and even their mother tongue, Odia,” Mr. Mallick said.
The objective of ‘Operation Anweshan’ is to reunite the children with their parents, facilitate their education and help them lead a better family life, Mr. Sai said. He added that the Andhra Pradesh officials were cooperating with the Odisha team in tracing the children.
The children were natives of Koraput, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Cuttack, Bhawanipatna and other places. A majority of the minors belonged to Adivasi communities and were from economically disadvantaged families, the Odisha officials said.
