The least number of rescues were made from the cosmetics industry; however, it employed the maximum number of children (26) in the tender age group of 5 to 8 years. The reasons for employing very small children is for packing of small items like lipsticks for which small hands are preferred. These findings released to mark World Day Against Trafficking in Persons observed each year on July 30 are based on a study of data availalble with Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation based on rescue operations carried out to free children from exploitative conditions from across 262 districts and 21 states in India between the year 2016 and 2022.
Of the over 13,549 children rescued between 2016 to 2022 over 80% (10,934) were adolescents in the age group of 13 to 18 years and around 13% (1,781) belonged to the 9-12 age group. The data found that among those recued 274 were between 5 to 8 years old and 31 were below 5 years.
Based on the rescue data, Jaipur city emerged to be one of the prominent destinations for trafficked children with the maximum number (1,115) rescued from the district, accounting for 9% of the total. Next in line were two districts from the capital city-north Delhi with 5.24% of total rescues and northwest Delhi with 5.13% of the total number of rescued children. Five out of top 10 districts from where the maximum number of trafficked children were rescued are in the country’s capital.
Among the states from where the rescues were carried out Uttar Pradesh saw the maximum number of children trafficked on an average per year – 267 in the pre-Covid phase between 2016 to 2019 and 1,214 in 2021-22. UP was followed by Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, together making up the top three states from where the maximum number of children are trafficked on average per year.