15 child workers rescued in Delhi

New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) Fifteen minors who were being taken to Ludhiana in Punjab as child labour were rescued Thursday from the Old Delhi Railway Station and five people, including one from Nepal, were arrested, police said.

The accused were arrested in the morning while they, along with the children, were waiting at the station for a train to Ludhiana, an official said.

The boys were being taken to Punjab on the pretext of providing better employment opportunities and high regular wages while working in various garment factories, shops and farms, police said.

Those arrested comprised four people from West Bengal and one from Nepal.

Nine of the rescued children are from West Bengal.

Acting on a complaint filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), a team of Delhi Police, railway police and activists raided platform numbers 10 and 11 of the station and rescued the minor boys, aged between nine and 16 years.

The children were brought here by the Brahmaputra Mail which connects Delhi with Dibrugarh in Assam.

Few of the parents of these children were not aware that their sons were being taken to Ludhiana.