13 children rescued from Sidhwa Dona potato farms

Aparna Banerji

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Jalandhar, April 7

A child trafficking racket was busted and traced to the midst of fields after activists of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), aided by a district task force, raided farm establishments at Sidhwa Dona village in Kapurthala on Wednesday.

The repeated employment of child labourers in Punjab’s and Doaba’s potato fields is very bothersome. The BBA has regularly been acting on similar complaints. Forty children were also rescued from potato farms in Qadian in December 2020. The district administration should also take this issue seriously and act against the culprits.— Dinesh Kumar, from Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation

We only accompanied the BBA team as a taskforce. Since an FIR has already been lodged in Bihar, none will be lodged in Punjab. I don’t have the name or details of the owners. Children also said they were not forced to do labour.Rs Ranjodh Singh, SHO, Sadar (Kapurthala) police station

Kids were being kept in a deplorable condition in the fields and other establishments. Their father complained to us that while child traffickers took them on the promise of money and ensured they would talk to parents every day, but after a year, the conversation became less and children were not allowed to talk to their parents. — Yadvinder Singh, BBA state coordinator

As many 13 minor children, all boys, were found doing labour in potato fields after having been trafficked from Bihar and Nepal.

Of the children rescued, 12 were from Bihar (nine were from Sitamarhi, two from Kishanganj, one from Muzaffarpur) and one child from Nepal. All children, who are aged between 10 to 16 years, had been doing labour in potato fields away from their parents. The children were rescued as joint teams of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan and the district child protection unit raided the establishments.

The BBA was acting on a complaint by Sajan Manjhi, a Sitamarhi (Bihar) resident, who had complained to the organisation that his sons — one is 12 years old and the other is 14 years old — had been taken by child trafficker Vidhan Rai and kept in this village for the past two years. An FIR was also lodged in the case at Sitamarhi in Bihar.

While a team of BBA activists from Bihar, a Sub-Inspector of Bihar and Sajan Manjhi (two boys’ parent) landed in the state on April 5 to rescue the children, the raid was initiated on Wednesday after the local authorities were intimated on the issue and a team of district task force was taken along.

BBA’s Chandigarh co-ordinator Yadvinder Singh was also part of the team.

The teams secretly kept an eye on Sidhwa Dona village all day, three places in the fields were raided late in the evening. At a raid conducted about 8 pm, children were rescued from three places — a labour colony, a motor in the midst of fields and a haveli where potatoes were being stored.

Many children were being put up at a congested pump house and were made to work all day. Despite the intensive raids, Bihar-based complainant Sajan Manjhi’s children had not been traced yet.

BBA state coordinator Yadvinder Singh said, “Kids were being kept in a deplorable condition in the fields and other establishments. Their father complained to us that while child traffickers took them on the promise of money and ensured they would talk to parents every day, but after a year, the conversation became very less and the children were not allowed to talk to their parents.

“Concerned about his children, Sajan approached BBA and the Bihar police where a case has already been lodged (on March 24) against trafficker Vidhan Rai. We are still on the lookout for Manjhi’s two sons. We have received the full cooperation of the district administration. We seek immediate action against the owners from whose field the children have been found. We request an FIR be lodged against them as soon as possible,” he said.

The 13 children have been kept at Netraheen Ashram in Phagwara and their statements are being taken by the police. However, what’s shocking is that the police claims no FIR will be lodged in the case in Punjab as the traffickers have already been booked in Bihar. So far no action has been initiated against the owners of the fields or establishments from where the children have been rescued.