Delhi Police and NGO lead away a rescued, abused 16-year-old girl, in a congested lane. (AI image)
NEW DELHI: A 16-year-old girl who was allegedly made to work for nearly 20 hours a day, repeatedly burnt with a hot iron and denied food for days was rescued from a house in southeast Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, police said on Saturday. Following directions from the Kalkaji sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), a rescue operation was carried out by the Labour Department, Delhi Police and representatives of the NGO on November 3 and 4. The SDM directed Shaheen Bagh police station to register a case under the provisions of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The girl was initially too scared to speak before officials, as she had allegedly been threatened with death if she revealed the abuse.
An NGO approached them with a complaint alleging that a girl was being employed as a labourer in the area, according to police. During the operation, the girl, who lives in Shram Vihar Jhuggi in Shaheen Bagh, was rescued from a house in Abul Fazal Enclave-II, where she was allegedly employed by a woman identified as Sadaf, police said. Police said the girl was also allegedly stopped from meeting her parents, who were allowed to speak to her over the phone only two or three times in nearly a year.
She later recounted her ordeal before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).