The district child protection unit in Kerala has set up a new child rescue force to bring trafficking, labour, beggary and abuse of children under control, as per a report by Amiya Meethal in Deccan Chronicle.
The project has now been launched in four districts - Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Kollam. Officials have informed that the project will soon be functional in other districts as well.
The initiative is part of the ‘Operation Sharanabalyam’ programme which was launched to bring child labour under control during pilgrimage seasons in Sabarimala.
Every district will be given six officers who will ‘trace, rescue and rehabilitate the children’, reports Deccan Chronicle.
AO Abeen, state nodal officer of the Sharanabalyam project, said, “The child rescue force will coordinate with the child help desk of the child welfare committee (CWC). The rescue officers will function on shift basis round the clock. The inspection to trace children will be carried out three days in a week”, added the report.
The rescued children will be initially under the care and supervision of CWC before they are reunited with their parents.
Meanwhile, the rescue officers will have to contact the CWC of the respective states for children from other states. The reunion of such children will be facilitated through the CWC in their home states.
During the pilgrimage season in Sabarimala, many children are found employed in shops at Laaha, Pampa, Kanamala, Nilakkal and Chengannur. As many as 12 such children were rescued from Sabarimala last year, the report added.
“These children, girls and boys, were sheltered in pathetic conditions making them vulnerable to sexual abuse,” added Abeen.
The rescue officers have also received complaints of child labour rackets thriving during Oachira temple festival in Kollam.
Siju Ben, district child protection officer of Kollam told Deccan Chornicle, “This year, six children were rescued from child labour and beggary. All of them are natives.”
Since 2015, 35 children have been rescued from Oachira alone, a majority of them from outside Kerala.