About 200 bonded labourers from Bihar released

Patna, May 19: In all 198 child bonded labourers, working in and around New Delhi for several years under deplorable condition, were freed and sent back to their homes.

Official sources quoting New Delhi-based Bihar Information Centre Assistant Director K Sharma said all these children, either working in different factories or in dubious organisations without being paid for long, were freed in phases and sent back to their respective homes this week.

Sources said in the first phase altogether 49 children from five districts, including Katihar, Kishanganj, Purnia and Khagaria, were rescued by the NGOs and sent back to their homes on Tuesday last, while in the second batch another 65 children from Madhubani, Darbhanga, Gaya and Sitamarhi districts returned home.

Similarly, in subsequent two more batches another 84 children from as many as eight districts, including Munger, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Champaran and Samstipur, were sent back to their respective homes.

Hailing the efforts of the two NGOs - the ''Bachpan Bancaho Andolan'' (Save the Children Movement) and the ''Bandhua Mukti Morcha'' (Organisation to free bonded labourers), the sources here said efforts to free more such child labourers were on not only from here but also from several other parts of the country.

UNI