Roshit Thapa, a 13-year-old from Bachhuli-3 in Chitwan, went out of contact three months ago. He said a masked man offered him IRs 500 and a chocolate that night and took him to an undisclosed location once he lost his consciousness.

“He used to approach me earlier as well, giving Rs 100 and sometimes even more,” Roshit told the Post, adding that the man lured him with job opportunity at a mobile phone store where he would be paid a monthly salary of Rs 20,000.

He added that he was at a mobile phone store when he regained his senses. “People were talking in Hindi. The shop owner asked for my address and scolded the man who took me there saying that I was too young for work. He then returned me home,” said Roshit, who went back home after 16 days.

A Lalbandi-based organisation in Sarlahi rescued 13 Nepali children from Gaya, India, last month. The traffickers took the victims to India assuring their guardians of Rs 3,000 in monthly salary. Twelve of them were from Sindhuli and one from Rautahat.

The children used to beg with devotees and tourists visiting the area for a living. “It was found that a child could earn about Rs 15,000 per month.

The traffickers took the rest of the amount after handing Rs 3,000 to the family,” said Dinesh Ghimire, a child rights activist involved in rescuing the victims.

In another incident, police rescued a 10-year-old boy after it was revealed that he was sold to a Thuthipipal-based restaurant in Rupandehi by his mother. The mother sold him for Rs 25,000 before she eloped with a second man. The incident came to light after the restaurant owner refused to release the boy, a resident of Ramgram-2, to perform the final rites of his father.

All of the above victims were ultimately rescued but there has been no legal punishment to the traffickers. Of late, the cases of children missing have gone unchecked in various districts of central and western Tarai.

According to police and social organisations working for children, most of the victims who went missing are children aged between 5 and 15. The victims have been trafficked to India and various parts of Nepal to work in hazardous conditions in hotels, restaurants, factories, circuses and even brothels. Police confirmed that the culprits were lured with lucrative jobs and were sedated before being trafficked.

As per the data available at District Police Office (DPO) in Chitwan, there are 18 reported cases of children missing in the past six months. Superintendent of Police Sahakul Thapa said that five victims came to contact while the whereabouts of 13 others remain unknown.

“People come to police when a child goes missing. But they hardly inform police once the missing comes to contact,” said Thapa.

In Rupandehi, twenty-one children went missing in past six months while 72 children went out of contact in the same time span in Makwanpur.

In Parsa, police and various child organisations rescued 139 children from different parts of India in 2014 and another 19 were rescued in Kapilvastu the same year.

13 children killed in four years

BARA: The number of children murdered is on the rise in Bara in recent years. As per the data available at the District Police Office, 13 children were killed in the district in the past four years.

In a recent incident, four-year-old Ashish Kalawar, son of Motilal Sah Kalawar of India, was abducted and subsequently murdered in Kalaiya on Monday night. Locals have been left terrorised with similar cases of killing minors. “The incidents go unchecked in the district, leaving people in fear.

There is not effective security arrangement to control the crime,” said Binod Sah, the chairman of Bara Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (PR) (With inputs from our local correspondents)

Published on: 29 January 2015 | The Kathmandu Post