33 children are among the 70 who have been rescued from being trafficked in Chhattisgarh's Bastar
33 children are among the 70 people who have been rescued from being trafficked in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district. The people who had been sold to factories and brick kilns, were being transported in a bus when police intercepted the vehicle following a tip-off from anti-trafficking campaigners in Bastar on Wednesday.
"We have rescued 20 minor boys and 13 girls. Rest of them are adults and were sold as bonded labourers," Bastar child protection officer Vijay Shankar Sharma told news agency Agence-France Presse.
They were sold for thousands of rupees each to factory owners in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Mr Sharma said.
Police also arrested a five-member gang on trafficking charges.
The children were at a rehabilitation centre and would be sent back to their homes.
All the people being trafficked are from tribes in the Maoist stronghold of Bastar and adjoining districts.
Traffickers lure thousands of vulnerable children from rural areas on false promises of jobs before selling them off to factories, prostitution, forced labour or begging, officials said.
More than 1.4 crore adults and children are trapped in modern slavery in India, the most of any country, according to the Walk Free Foundation's 2014 Global Slavery Index.
India's official statistics mention 5,466 cases of human trafficking reported in 2014.