Rourkela: Childline officials rescued a 14-year-old girl engaged as a maid at the house of a school headmistress at Sector-4, D Block here Sunday.
The rescued minor, who has been working for the last three years and allegedly tortured, was identified as second of the three daughters of a tribal couple. Her parents are daily wagers and residents of Tamda under Gurundia block in Sundargarh district.
What surprised most people here is, the girl used to bear all the torture and worked as a maid in the house of the teacher who is staying behind the house of the incumbent chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
The rescued minor’s 10-year-old sister is working as a maid at the house of the teacher’s husband at Khapuria in Cuttack. However, there is no trace of her 16-year-old elder sister who was engaged as a maid in New Delhi at the behest of the headmistress.
Sector-3 police detained the younger son of the headmistress who is an employee at Rourkela Steel Plant and questioned him in this connection.
Childline officials in Cuttack have been informed about the victim’s younger sibling and asked to rescue her from Khapuria. However, details about the eldest of the three siblings are not available.
The matter came to the fore when the headmistress was travelling in a bus from Cuttack to Rourkela with the minor. A former chairperson of the CWC, who happened to be a co-passenger, met the girl. When she questioned the girl, the latter narrated her ordeal and urged the former CWC chairperson to rescue her.
The girl claimed that the headmistress used to engage her in all household works and even used to swap her with her sister working in Cuttack. She and her sisters were engaged as maids with the headmistress by a contractor Lalu three years back. The victim however, failed to give any details about her elder sister engaged in New Delhi.
All her requests to disengage her failed to move the headmistress who treated her like a bonded labourer. Later, the former CWC chairperson informed Childline officials in Rourkela and asked them to rescue the minor.
Childline officials accompanied by Sector-3 police raided the house of the headmistress and rescued the girl no sooner they alighted from the bus and reached home.
The contractor Lalu has a history of trafficking minor girls. A girl from Chhattisgarh was rescued from his custody a few years back. He allegedly lures minor girls from poor rural families and hands them over to affluent persons to work as domestic maids for a premium.
Abdul Kalam Azad, CWC chairperson, rejected having any knowledge about the rescued minor engaged as maid in the house of the headmistress. He said steps are being taken to rescue and rehabilitate all the three siblings.
Child trafficker held; 3 Jharkhand kids rescued
Champua: Police foiled a child trafficking bid by an agent who was taking three minor boys from Banelikala in Jharkhand to Puri on the promise of jobs. The children were rescued here in Keonjhar district by the police Sunday while the agent was arrested.
The accused Kedar Jena from Brahmagiri in Puri was waiting at the local bus stand to take the children in a bus.
Kedar had gone to Baneikala, Sialjoda and Dharuadihi in Jharkhand Saturday. There, he lured some children into working in Puri.
He managed to convince three children aged between 12 to 14 years in Beneikala and booked tickets for them.
They were coming in a private bus. However, the police had got a tip-off about the trafficking and raided the bus near Karama Complex.
Police booked the agent under various sections of IPC and produced him in a court.
PNN
