The pandemic phase has forced scores of children into child labour and reports suggest that the number of children being pushed into labour has touched a 20-year-high in India. And reports of children being sucked into labour have been coming in from Uppal Industrial Area of Telangana as well.

Coordinated action spearheaded by Bachpan Bachao Andolan’s Raid and Rescue Team and Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) helped rescue 10 children from a pharmaceutical company in Uppal. On July 12, 2021, BBA in coordination with AHTU, District Child Protection Unit, Para Legal Volunteers, Childline and Rachakonda Police rescued four girls and six boys from Krishna Pharma Company situated at Devender Nagar Colony in Uppal. Having dropped out of school during the pandemic, the children were employed for manufacturing and packaging of sanitizers and involved in mixing of chemicals, which was dangerous for their health.

The rescued children belong to the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They were living in Telangana with their family members who work as migrant workers in the nearby industrial area.

An FIR was registered and the employer G Mallikarjun Rao has been arrested.

The children were produced before the district Child Welfare Committee and then  provided shelter in Don Bosco and Auxilium Vikas Child Care Institutions.