Ninety-five children were rescued by the Uttar Pradesh Child Commission on Friday, April 26 in Ayodhya as they were being transported illegally from Bihar to Uttar Pradesh. The Ayodhya Child Welfare Committee, led by Chairperson Sarvesh Awasthi, sprang into action upon receiving information from UP Child Commission member Suchitra Chaturvedi. The rescue operation took place on Friday morning, April 26 with CWC members swiftly intervening to ensure the safety of the children.
“At around 9 am, UP Child Commission member Suchitra Chaturvedi called and said that from Bihar, minor children are being transported to Saharanpur illegally and that they’re were in Gorakhpur and will go via Ayodhya. We rescued the children and they were given food and medical assistance,” Awasthi said.
He said that the children who were rescued were between the age of 4-12.
“Those people who brought the children had no consent letters from parents. Children are between the age of 4-12 and most of them said they didn’t know where they were being taken. Parents are being contacted and children will be handed over once they arrive. There were a total of 95 children”, the CWC Chairperson said.
Earlier, a group of children from Bihar, being sent to madrasas across states, were rescued by the Uttar Pradesh State Child Commission in Gorakhpur.
The children were rescued by the state children’s panel at the behest of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Chairperson, of the National Commission for Protection Of Child Rights, Priyank Kanoongo, shared the word of the children’s rescue in a post on X.
“Innocent children who were being sent to madrasas in other states from Bihar have been rescued in Gorakhpur with the help of Uttar Pradesh State Child Commission on the instructions of @NCPCR,” Kanoongo posted from his X handle.
“The Constitution of India has given the right to education to every child. It is mandatory for every child to go to school. In such a situation, taking poor children to other states and keeping them in madrasas to earn donations on the basis of religion is a violation of the Constitution,” he added. “To prevent such crimes, it is necessary to lodge an FIR in the incident, which the Gorakhpur Railway Police has not done yet,” the chief of the national children’s panel added. (With inputs from ANI)
