New Delhi, May 22 (IANS): A total of 70 children were rescued from the Old Delhi Railway Station Wednesday while they were boarding a train for Punjab, police said.
The children were brought to Delhi from Raxaul in Bihar by another train.
A police team boarded the train at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and rescued the children while they were being shifted to the other train at the railway station.
"The children aged between eight and 16 years were being taken to Punjab on the pretext of being given jobs," a police official said.
The operation was carried out jointly by Delhi Police and Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO working for the rights of children and to end human trafficking.
"The children, hailing from Raxaul in Bihar and Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh, were being taken to work in the agricultural fields and granaries of Abohar in Punjab," a member of the NGO told IANS.
The traffickers had paid the parents of the children in advance and convinced them that their wards will earn handsome amounts of money and will be properly looked after.
"The children have been taken to the child welfare committee. They will be with the NGO till counselling is over and then sent home," the NGO member said.