11 Bru girls brought in pretext of job rescued from Agartala

The childline authorities got information that a suspicious person had been identified at Chandrapur inter-state bus terminus with a number of apparently minor girls. Soon, the childline members shared the inputs with the police and cops held the suspicious person and took over the custody of the children.

Agartala: Prompt action from the Childline authorities and police rescued altogether 11 Bru refugee girls from being pushed into the trap of child labour in Agartala on Wednesday. All the girls had been shifted to a child line run shelter home and they would be produced before the Child Welfare Committee before being handed over to their family members.

According to sources, the childline authorities got information that a suspicious person had been identified at Chandrapur inter-state bus terminus with a number of apparently minor girls. Soon, the childline members shared the inputs with the police and cops held the suspicious person and took over the custody of the children.

It was later found out that the person convinced the girls as well as their parents to come with him in the pretext of lucrative salary for which they had to work as domestic help in different parts of Agartala.

A child line member identified as Sangita Baruli, said, “We have been informed by our sources that one person is spotted in Chandrapur ISBT with a number of girls. We have shared inputs with East Agartala women police station. The police have taken custody of the girls and also held the person who is leading them”.

She said, among the 11 girls, 2 were 18 years of age and rest of the others were minors. The person who had taken them along had been also asked not to leave the state as all of them would be produced before the Child Welfare Committee. Their parents were also contacted and they would also report before the CWC.

According to her, three girls were already sent to Mandai and Jirania for work and they were asked to report before the childline. A Childline official also admitted that the girls were brought from Bru refugee camps located at Kanchanpur.

However, this incident indicated that an evil nexus of child labour is active in the city that has well-connected roots across the state targeting people from a backward section of the society and forcing children to work in undesirable ages.

Reang (Bru) are one of the 21 scheduled tribes of the Indian state of Mizoram and Tripura. The Bru can be found all over the Tripura state in India. However, they may also be found in Assam. They speak the Reang dialect of Kokborok language which is of Tibeto-Burmese origin and is locally referred to as Kau Bru.