Telangana: 200 kids rescued from brick kilns
In these kilns, the kids were employed for mixing the raw material, carrying bricks and drying them under hot sun, police said.
Hyderabad: As many as 200 kids working in the brick kilns in Choutuppal were rescued by Rachakonda Police on Tuesday. The kids were found to be ch-ildren of workers from Odisha state who were working in the kilns. In these kilns, the kids were employed for mixing the raw material, carrying bricks and drying them under hot sun, police said.
Managements of 11 brick kilns were booked. According to police, around 155 children were aged below 13 and more than 40 were aged between 13 and 18, and they lived along with their parents in the huts laid in the campuses surrounding the brick kilns on the outskirts of Peddakodur village in Pochampally mandal. Police found that the workers from Odisha came to Choutuppal a month ago and will be at work till June, as January to June is considered as the season for brick manufacturing. The adults are paid with meagre wages and the children who work with their parents are paid much less. They lived in unhygienic conditions.
ACP Choutuppal M. Snehitha said a majority of the kids below 13 were malnourished and living without basic amenities. They worked here for six months and returned and a new group came for work in the next phase. A group of Odisha-based traffickers are running this racket and the cops were now trying to trace them. “Since there is no school facility for kids in the surroundings, we are pursuing with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to start a school for these kids,” she said. Police registered cases against the managements of the manufacturing units who employed the kids and shifted them to care homes. The case is under investigation.