Cyberabad cops free 45 child labourers
Most kids were working in eateries & workshops.
Hyderabad: A 17-year-old girl from Karnataka who had to discontinue her education due to financial problems in the family ended up as a child labourer working in a carton box packing unit in Balanagar. A 14-year-boy from Nalgonda who wanted to help his father run the family was working as a helper to a bike mechanic. These two kids and 43 other minor children who were employed as child labourers in Cyberabad’s Balanagar zone were rescued on Friday.
Police said that 160 minors who were employed at eateries, cloth stores, welding shops, mechanical garages and other commercial establishments were rescued by Cyberabad police in January 2017. Balanagar DCP Dr Y. Sai Shekar said the operation would continue and everyone found employing children will be booked.
As part of the Operation Smile programme, police and officials from the child welfare department conducted raids in nine police station areas in Balanagar zone and rescued 45 kids, most of them from the Balanagar industrial area.
They were sent to rescue homes.
Twenty persons who had employed these kids were booked under the Prevention of Child Labour Act.