Patna: Help has poured in for Padariya village near Bodhgaya in Gaya district, around 100km south of Patna, which is plagued by problems of child labour and human trafficking.
An NGO, Ek Kiran Aaroh, has adopted the village, which has around 215 families, mostly from the marginalised Musahar community.
Block development officer Binod Kumar, labour superintendent Zubair Alam and mukhiya Rajesh Yadav were among the officials who were present at the village adoption ceremony on Sunday. Village children presented a street play highlighting the problem of human trafficking.
The principal of the government middle school in the village, Padariya, Chandan Kumar, pointed to vacant posts of teachers in the school.
"There are only five teachers against 850 students. The government should recruit teachers in the vacant posts. This would help stop migration of children from the village in the form of child labourers," said Chandan.
Ek Kiran director Manoj Kumar said: "We will make self-help groups in the village in which they would be trained in mushroom farming, collective farming, including floriculture, among other trades so that they can be self-reliant. One of the main reasons of child labour and human trafficking is poverty. Until we start community-based income generation, this problem is not going to be solved. We have also decided to give the people in the self-help groups a token fund to start work."
He said boys and girls between 16 and 23 years of age will be trained in making momos and chowmein so that they can earn money.
"As per the law, children less than 14 years of age cannot be involved in any trade while children above 14 can be involved in non-hazardous trade but for a fixed time period. So we have decided to train children above 16 in various trades so that they can support their families," added Manoj.
According to the NGO, many children have been missing in the village since the past few years. "We have learnt that the children left the village to work but they never came back. The child trafficking issue is grave in Gaya especially in Bodhgaya which is a tourist destination. Many children have gone missing from Bodhgaya in the recent past. Our initiative is a beginning to address this issue," added Manoj.
The NGO will also educate the villagers about government schemes.