The 72-hour-long raid conducted at an aqua processing unit in Krishna district by the officials of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) unearthed a major inter-State child trafficking case in Andhra Pradesh on Monday.
Officers identified about 30 suspected minors working at the processing-cum-packing unit at Pamarru in Krishna district.
Workers from Odisha, Assam, West Bengal and other States could be found cleaning the factory premises and cooking after their working hours.
“I am a native of Munchingput village on the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB region). As my family suffered severe poverty, I came to work here in the factory,” a minor girl told The Hindu.
Similar is the plight of another girl from Odisha. “My father abandoned my family, and my mother suffered from illness. So, I came to Andhra Pradesh to feed my family,” she said.
Another minor girl from West Bengal said she reached the factory through mediators. “I don’t know how much my pay is. The owner will not pay me directly but remit it to my parents. I work in the packing unit in the aqua company,” she said.
Meanwhile, a woman labourer who has been working at the firm for over 12 years says she had to come all the way from Odisha to A.P. in search of work with the single motive of keeping her children from sleeping hungry. “I’m paid ₹12,000 per month,” she said.
The workers at the aqua firm said that some were engaged in grading shrimp, and the others were allotted work in processing and packing units. The company management collects shrimp from the farmers in Guntur, East and West Godavari, Nellore, Ongole and Krishna districts and exports the stocks after processing them in the plant, a woman labourer from Assam said.
“The plant operates round-the-clock. There will be day and night shifts, and the management allots us sheds to rest,” 40-year-old Jyothi told The Hindu.
