Operation Smile: Three Minors Rescued from Forced Labour in Uppal

Hyderabad:Three minor girls from Chhattisgarh were rescued from a construction site in Uppal, where they were forced to perform gruelling labour, carrying heavy sand and cement to the third floor. Ironically, they were constructing a school building.

N. Padma, a worker from Ashritha NGO, said Uppal police and the anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) raided the site as part of Operation Smile. “The victims are from Bastar, Chhattisgarh, and had been working at the site for two months. Despite their young age, they endured harsh physical labour. They were paid `500 per day,” she said.

The conditions at the site were equally deplorable for other workers. Men and women were crammed into asbestos-sheet rooms and forced to sleep on the floor in harsh conditions. The rescued girls lacked Aadhaar cards, and age verification confirmed they were minors, aged 16 to 18.

After counselling, the girls were handed over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). The committee then entrusted them to a relative working at the site to take them back to their native place Bastar, with assurances that live pictures of the girls at their homes would be shared.