131 Trafficked Children Rescued From Raipur Factory; NHRC Launches Probe (Image: AI-Generated)
Raipur, Chhattisgarh: On November 17, 2025, 131 trafficked children were rescued from the Mojo Mushroom Factory in Raipur during a joint operation led by the National Human Rights Commission, the Women and Child Development Department, and Raipur police. The children who were forced to work for long hours in hazardous and confined conditions were freed after an NGO flagged continued exploitation inside the unit. Officials say coordinated surveillance and ground inputs guided the team’s entry into the premises. The rescue marks one of the largest crackdowns on child labour in the state this year.
Most of the children, i.e. 86 girls and 45 boys belonged to marginalised tribal communities in Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. Many had left home believing they would earn enough to support their families, but instead found themselves trapped, some for several years. “I miss my mother every day. We never thought the job would mean hunger and pain,” said one teenage girl from Odisha, now receiving care in Raipur.
NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo, in a post on X on Tuesday, said the children lived in cramped, poorly ventilated rooms inside the factory and worked 12–15 hour shifts with barely enough food to keep them going. Several said they often slept on the floor, too exhausted to move after long hours of sorting mushrooms. Investigators also confirmed that the children were exposed to formalin-treated produce, a toxic chemical known to cause serious health risks, without any protective equipment.
The operation was triggered after the Association for Voluntary Action, an NGO, alerted the NHRC to continuing violations at the facility. The same factory had been raided in July, but the absence of strong action against those running it allowed operations to resume. Child rights activists say this pattern of penalising only middlemen, while owners escape scrutiny, emboldens traffickers and perpetuates cycles of exploitation.
Police have now registered a case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against four individuals linked to the unit. The Child Welfare Committee is conducting a detailed inquiry, and the NHRC has ordered the factory’s closure until investigations are complete. The rescued children are currently in rehabilitation centres in Raipur, receiving counselling, medical support and assistance as authorities prepare for safe repatriation.
(This article is published as part of the Timeline Internship Programme. The author is a postgraduate diploma student in Convergence Journalism in MediaOne Academy in Kozhikode, Kerala.)
