‘80% children in India rescued from trafficking between 13-18 yrs’

New Delhi: As many as 80 per cent of children rescued from being trafficked fall between the age-group of 13 to 18 years.

Also, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh were the top three states with the maximum number of children trafficked between 2016 and 2022, while national capital Delhi saw a huge 68 per cent rise in child trafficking from pre to post-Covid times.

These are the findings of the “Child Trafficking in India” report, which has been compiled by Games24x7 and Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF), founded by Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi.

It was released on Sunday, to mark the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30.

The report noted that while Jaipur city emerged as the hotspot of child trafficking in the country, the other four top slots of the top 10 districts were found to be in the national capital Delhi.

It revealed that while the maximum number of children between 13 and 18 years were engaged by various industries, the cosmetic industry was found to have engaged children under the age group of 5 and 8 years.

According to the report, the industries that employ the maximum number of child labour are hotels and dhabas (15.6 per cent), followed by neighbourhood grocery stores and automobile or transport industry (13 per cent), and garments sector (11.18 per cent).

Also, while 80 per cent of the children rescued were adolescents in the age group 13 to 18 years, 13 per cent of the children were in the age group of 9 to 12 years and over 2 per cent were younger than 9 years.