11 kids rescued from Punjab potato farm

As many as 11 children, who were being forced to toil hard in a potato farm at Brindpur in Kapurthala, were on Sunday rescued by a joint team of the Punjab and Bihar police and Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a Bihar-based NGO. While eight of the rescued children belong to Sitamarhi in Bihar, the remaining are from Nepal.

The raid was conducted in response to an FIR registered in Sitamarhi last month against two agents who had allegedly lured four persons and several children aged between 12 and 16 years from a village in Bihar to work at potato farms of Kapurthala at a wage of Rs 12,000 per month.

The complainant, the parent of one of the rescued children, alleged Sonbarsa (Bihar) resident Bigan Rai and his brother Jinesh Rai had taken their children and relatives to Kapurthala where they were held captive, beaten up and forced to work in the farm for 16 hours a day. Sources said Bigan Rai was involved in several cases of child labour and human trafficking. The FIR was lodged under Sections 137 (2), 146 and 3(5) of the BNS Act; Sections 3(1)(h)(i)(s) of the SC/ST Act; Sections 17, 18 of the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act; Section 3, 14 of the Child and Adolescent Labour Prohibition Act; and Section 75 and 79 of the JJ Act at Sursand police station in Sitamarhi on November 21.

After gathering information about the victims’ whereabouts, police officials from Bihar arrived here this morning. A raid was conducted at the potato farm following which 11 children and four adults were rescued.

ASI Jaswinder Singh of the Sadar police station, Kapurthala, who was part of the raid, said, “As many as 11 children and 20 adults have so far been rescued from the village. The victims are sent home after counselling.”

NGO official Sandeep Singh said, “The children were held captive, denied food and beaten up if they refused to work for long hours. The children were found inside a potato storage area of the farm which is spread over 100 acres.”