Udaipur – In a joint operation led by the Udaipur Police, its Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, and the Gayatri Seva Sansthan Udaipur, 91 child labourers have been rescued from textile factories in Surat. The children, aged between 7 and 14 years, were trafficked and forced to work for meager wages. All traffickers and factory owners fled the scene upon learning of the raid.

Most of the rescued children belong to tribal areas in the Udaipur region of Rajasthan. Three children are from Uttar Pradesh, one from Jharkhand, and one from Bihar. All have been produced before the Child Welfare Committee, Surat, and legal proceedings are underway.

The operation was initiated following an investigation by social activist and former member of the Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Dr. Shailendra Pandya. Based on his findings, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Government of India, took cognizance of the matter and issued directives. Dr. Pandya informed Superintendent of Police of Udaipur, Dr. Amrita Duhan, who swiftly formed a team of 22 police officers from the Udaipur Police and the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit.

This team was sent to Surat. The rescue operation was carried out in coordination with the Puna Police Station in Surat, civil society organizations Just Rights for Children, the Association for Voluntary Action (AVA), and the Gayatri Seva Sansthan Udaipur.

Dr. Pandya had spent a month monitoring and investigating various textile factories in Surat through local networks and organizations. After confirming the presence of a large number of child labourers, he informed the NCPCR. The rescued children later provided police with key leads and identified the locations where child labour was being exploited.

Speaking with The Mooknayak, Dr. Shailendra Pandya said, “The children took us to a building that was locked from the outside. They told us children were working inside. When we entered, we found children as young as seven years old being made to work. All the children were scared, disoriented, and exhausted after working 12-hour shifts.”

Dr. Pandya said he was shocked to see the children’s dire condition. He recounted that an eight-year-old boy did not even have a shirt to wear. He hid behind other children and asked if someone could lend him a shirt for a while. Dr. Pandya praised the police and all stakeholders for their swift action and seriousness, which made the large-scale rescue possible.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the child traffickers and factory owners had employed various methods to avoid detection. Young children were brought to the location early in the morning, after which the building doors were locked from the outside. The doors were opened only after the work shift ended at 7 p.m.

All children were housed in nearby colonies under extremely poor and inhuman conditions. Ten to twelve children lived in a single small room with no basic amenities. During questioning, some older children revealed that their parents were aware they had been brought to Surat for labour. However, most of the younger children said they had been brought on the promise of an outing and had no idea they would be forced to work. It was also found that some children had been working in these textile units for three to four years, while others had been brought more recently. Among the rescued children were two brothers, aged eight and ten, who had been brought from Udaipur district.

Highlighting the strong links between trafficking networks and child labour, Ravi Kant, National Coordinator of Just Rights for Children, stated, “This raid establishes how organized trafficking gangs are and how deep-rooted they have become. Children, especially from tribal areas and vulnerable families, are lured by false promises and pushed into exploitative conditions where they are cut off from the outside world and lose their childhood. This case once again underscores the urgent need to strengthen inter-state coordination, monitor both the demand and supply sides of child labour, apprehend employers who exploit children and all intermediaries involved, and ensure their accountability.”

The rescue team, formed under the direction of the Superintendent of Police, Udaipur, included Anti-Human Trafficking Unit Udaipur in-charge Daya Ram, four Assistant Sub-Inspectors – Parvat Singh, Sukhlal, Jivaram, and Narender Singh – as well as Subhash Chandra and Narpat Singh from the unit, along with a total of 22 police personnel. From Gayatri Seva Sansthan Udaipur, Nitin Paliwal, Ramchandra Meghwal, and Payal Kaneria were present.