Children rescued from hotels in Orissa

Five children, aged between 10 and 14 years, were today rescued from various hotels in Berhampur in Ganjam district of Orissa.

One of the children said he had run away from the hostel of a residential school at Sundaraba in Gajapati district about seven months ago because of teachers' prolonged absence and lack of basic facilities.

The child, who was handed over to his parents, said he had run away without informing his parents and school teacher. "When I landed in Berhampur, I decided to work in a hotel as a hotel boy," official sources quoted him as saying.

The children, all school dropouts, belong to Ganjam and Gajapati districts, the sources said.

The remaining four would be kept in an observation home run by Orissa's women and child development department before
handing them over to their parents, Sudhir Sabat, director of the NGO - Child Line, Berhampur unit, said.

Cases were registered against two hotel owners for engaging child labourers, district labour officer Namita Das said.