Traffickers find new mode to transport children– private buses with dark windows

Private luxury buses, with their tinted, curtained windows and erratic time schedules, have become the preferred mode for traffickers transporting children hundreds of miles from their homes, say families of survivors and activists.

Adapting to Covid times, where regular rail services have been cancelled, traffickers have quickly moved from trains to buses and find them a safer option because it is more difficult for activists and government agencies to conduct rescue missions.

"We know about train timings, we know the station stops and, most important, we can see children who are alone. But in luxury buses with tinted glasses and curtains, it is very difficult to locate children. Keeping a tab on these buses, intercepting them and locating them is proving to be very difficult and that is something traffickers are taking advantage of," said Suresh Kumar, executive director of Center Direct, an NGO that works to rescue trafficked children.

Luxury buses, he added, do not have a timetable. Drivers park the buses during the day and at night fill them with children and leave.

About 75 children from Bihar have been rescued from luxury buses since last year but hundreds more have been trafficked, Kumar added.

"In front of our eyes we have seen buses filled with children leaving and speeding away before we can stop them," he told PTI in a phone interview.

The bus that sped Pinku*, a 12-year-old battling for life at a private medical facility in Bihar's Gaya district, from his village Korma to a bangle factory in far away Jaipur also had dark windows.

It was September last year. Had Pinku* been saved, he would not have ended up with a broken leg and severe malnourishment.

Pinku* was finally rescued in July this year. His mother, Kanta Devi* who went with him to Jaipur is thankful he is alive, and full of remorse she fell for the promises of the trafficker.

"Schools had closed and he was sitting at home. The trafficker promised us that the job in Jaipur is a light one for which he will be well paid and also schooled during his stay. We were told he will be given fruits and good food, a luxury for us," Kanta* told PTI.

Instead, her son was made to work for 16-18 hours a day at a bangle factory, given food once a day and brutally thrashed for any mistake.

"When Pinku* was found in July, his leg bones were broken. Doctors are saying his organs are also failing due to lack of food and constant beatings. He is fighting for his life," said the distraught mother.

Pinku* was referred to the Patna government hospital, from there to the Gaya medical college and recently shifted to a private facility.

To pay his medical bills, Kanta* said she has taken a loan of Rs 20,000 at a monthly interest rate of 5 per cent from a loan shark.

The bangle factory owner was arrested and a case registered against him in Jaipur.

Though there are no official numbers, social workers and officials fear Pinku* represents the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

Taking cognisance of the issue, Bihar police in June issued a circular asking its personnel o keep a tab and check if needed luxury buses from states, including Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Punjab, through which children might be getting trafficked.

"Earlier, too, children were trafficked using these buses. But this has now become rampant because traffickers are seeing how difficult it is for us to intercept them," Kumar said.

Their task becomes more difficult when families, as in Pinku's* case, go to drop their children.

"Parents make excuses like we are taking children to our relatives' home... and there is no way to know if they are telling the truth," Kumar said.

Deena Nath, a social worker with Center Direct, added that the Covid pandemic has increased the desperation of parents.

"They think that getting the children jobs will help in supporting the family. What they don't realise is that they are enslaving their child who will be at the mercy of the factory owner," he said.

The stories continue as if in an endless loop.

Rakesh*, also 12 years old, was one of those lucky to be rescued while he was going from Belaganj in Bihar to Delhi.

Recounting his tale, he said, "I was travelling alone in that bus. The 'seth' (trafficker) told us to tell anyone who asks that he is my uncle and we are going to visit our relatives in Delhi. As soon as we were intercepted, the trafficker ran away."

And Ramesh*, a resident of Bilav Nagar village in Bihar, said he was promised Rs 8,000 per month for his work and told he will also be given proper food.

"But at the bangle factory I had to make 30 bundles (720 bangles) every day. If there was any mistake, we were abused. We were not paid anything and were given food just once a day and a place to sleep. If we slept for more than five-six hours, we were kicked," said the young boy who was also rescued from a Jaipur bangle factory in July.

In the first increase in two decades, the number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide with millions more at risk due to the impact of COVID-19, according to an International Labour Organisation and Unicef report released in June.

The closure of 1.5 million schools due to the pandemic and lockdowns in India has impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary schools and added to the risk of them slipping into child labour and unsafe migration, Unicef has said.

According to the ILO, child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful.

The Indian Constitution prohibits children below the age of 14 years to engage in any factory or mine or in any other form of hazardous employment.

(*Names changed to protect identity)