30 per cent of the rescued children had been rescued earlier from bonded labour.
Even as the first batch of 82 children, rescued from bangle-making units in Hyderabad, head back home to Bihar, shocking details have emerged that about 30 per cent of the rescued children had been rescued earlier. They had been brought back by traffickers to work for the very same employers in the same bangle-making units, within six months.
The brazen act shows a lack of follow-up and rehabilitation, and the continued vulnerability of the children. None of the children admit that they have been brought back after having been rescued. Each one of them says he came just 10 days or a month ago. But records are available with labour and child welfare officials to prove that these very children have been rescued earlier.
Of the 62 boys brought to the Hyderabad Government Boys Home, 14 had been rescued earlier and sent back. Naveen Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of the Boys Home, is not hopeful this is not going to happen again. "There are big gaps and a strong network of traffickers and agents. Besides, because of extreme poverty, parents are willingly handing over children to traffickers," he says.
12-year-old Deepak is among the children who have been rescued. He was also among the bunch of boys rescued and sent back in June 2014. He is convinced he can never go to school because he has the responsibility of fending for his younger brother and sister.
Chetan Pillay, member of Hyderabad's Child Welfare Committee, says there is a need to improve monitoring for a sustained period. "Thirty per cent of the batch of 330 children we rescued have come back as child labour, retrafficked. We don't want that to happen again. This time we are going to ensure there is monitoring and tracking of these children for one year," he says.
Around the Government Boys Home, a number of people claiming to be 'parents' of the rescued children can be found. While one woman was unable to say where in Bihar she was from till she was prompted by another man, another kept making differing claims on how many of her children had been rescued. Officials have said there is every reason to suspect these were not genuine parents.