95 children illegally being taken to Bihar from UP rescued in Ayodhya

AYODHYA : The Uttar Pradesh Child Commission rescued 95 children on Friday, who were reportedly being illegally transported from Bihar to Uttar Pradesh, bringing attention to the issue of child trafficking .

According to Sarvesh Awasthi, Chairperson of the Ayodhya child welfare committee, the children were rescued after receiving information from Suchitra Chaturvedi, a member of the UP Child Commission.

'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.

The rescued children were between the ages of 4 and 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.

Prior to this incident, a group of children from Bihar, who were being sent to madrasas across states, were rescued by the Uttar Pradesh State Child Commission in Gorakhpur at the request of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

Priyank Kanoongo, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, shared the news of the children's rescue on X (formerly Twitter). He emphasized that the Constitution of India guarantees the right to education for every child and that taking poor children to other states and keeping them in madrasas to earn donations based on religion is a violation of the Constitution. Kanoongo also noted that the Gorakhpur railway police has not yet filed an FIR in the incident, which is necessary to prevent such crimes.