Overview
- Police, child-welfare teams, and the NGO AVA freed 13 children from cattle-rearing sites in Kabirdham after AVA tracked suspects for two weeks.
- Investigators say the minors, all 8 to 15 years old from the Baiga community, were taken from remote forest villages months ago with offers of money and better living conditions.
- The children told officials they grazed and tended cattle for more than 10 hours a day and received little or no pay while parents were handed ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 a month.
- Police registered a case at Bhoramdeo station under laws on human trafficking, bonded labour, child labour, and the Juvenile Justice Act, and the probe is ongoing.
- Arrest figures are shifting as the operation unfolds, with an initial count of eight detainees later updated in reports to 10, and officers working to identify others linked to the network.