Police Rescue 674 Children Under Operation Smile XII, 186 Employers Booked
The month-long operation, aimed at tracing missing children and identifying minors employed in unsafe and illegal working conditions, involved seven divisional teams, each comprising one sub-inspector and four police constables, including a woman constable.
Hyderabad: Malkajgiri police commissionerate has carried out an extensive child rescue and enforcement drive under Operation Smile XII. In the process, it has rescued 674 children engaged in child labour and hazardous occupations.
The month-long operation, aimed at tracing missing children and identifying minors employed in unsafe and illegal working conditions, involved seven divisional teams, each comprising one sub-inspector and four police constables, including a woman constable. The teams worked in coordination with the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU).
During the operation, rescue teams conducted inspections at hazardous industries, companies, business establishments, and other workplaces. All rescued children had been produced before the respective Child Welfare Committees for further care and rehabilitation.
Police registered 186 FIRs and made 443 general diary entries against managements and employers under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, and the Juvenile Justice Act.
In all, 189 employers and respondents have been arrested for engaging minors in labour and making them work more than nine hours a day, while paying informal wages and violating minimum wage norms.
Officials found that several establishments had brought child labourers from other states and subjected them to exploitative working conditions. Of the rescued children, 376 are from Telangana, 102 from Andhra Pradesh, 189 from other states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, and seven are from Nepal.
The Begumpet divisional team facilitated the admission of three rescued children into government schools with support from the Education department.
The rescue operations had been launched under the supervision of T. Usha Rani, DCP Women Safety Wing, Malkajgiri. Inspector S. Devender of AHTU Malkajgiri and his team, Operation Smile XII teams, Child Welfare Committee chairpersons and members, District Child Protection Unit, Labour Department, Association for Voluntary Action (AVA) and Child Line members participated in the rescue operations.
Authorities have asked people to pass on any information related to child labour, which is a crime, by dialling 100, 112 or 1098.
