SURAT/JAIPUR: A team of 50 cops , government officers and NGO volunteers rescued 138 child labourers in the age group of 10 to 16 years in raids carried out at multiple labour colonies in city’s Puna area on Sunday. The raids were carried out by Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (RSCPCR), Rajasthan Police , city police and volunteers belonging to some NGOs. It was for the first time that Rajasthan’s team crossed the interstate border to rescue child labourers, RSCPCR claimed.“The children were preparing to leave for work when we reached their tiny rooms in the chawls at around 5.30am. We found 10 to 15 children living in a single room and some of them were sleeping in an almirah. We did recce of the area and identified the locations before carrying out the raids. In one tiny room over 10 children were living and many of them have been working here for over five years. They are child labourers and police will investigate if they are victims of child trafficking,” RSCPCR member Shailendra Pandya told TOI.The children were working for contractors who arranged for their work and accommodation. Majority of them were employed in textile units and shops while others found work in restaurants and roadside dhabas. The kids worked in different ways like sewing 'moti' (shiny stones) in saris, packaging and cleaning work in showrooms. The children were frightened when rescued but their condition has improved after counselling, an officer said.Of the rescued children, 128 belong to different villages of Rajasthan and 10 are from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. The team from Rajasthan has returned with 128 children to unite them with their families. “We will register offences in Udaipur once we have collected details from the children. We found a 14-year-old boy who was brought to Surat when he was just seven years old. The boy has been rescued and brought to Udaipur. We will be investigating if they are victims of child trafficking or there is something else behind all this,” Pandya said.The 10 children from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh are in the custody of Child Welfare Committee of the city. They too will be sent back to their native places. “We have submitted a report to the CWC about the 10 children. Police will take further action on the basis of CWC’s report,” said a police officer of Puna police station.“Our department concerned normally checks commercial places. However, these children were found in a residential area. The team from Rajasthan had specific information about these children and it sought our support,” CWC chairman and Mayor Jagdish Patel said.The Rajasthan team launched mission ‘Baal Swaraj’ and reached Gujarat’s Surat to rescue the children who were taken by agents from tribal areas of the state, mostly from Udaipur district. RSCPCR chairperson Sangeeta Beniwal said they had received inputs that agents are active in Udaipur and they took along with them children from the region to Gujarat and employed them as child labourers.“It was difficult to raid the showrooms in the morning hours as it could distract the operation and hence we waited for the night when these kids would be taken to the hostels where they were accommodated by their employers. Our team raided two buildings and rescued children from Udaipur and Rajsamand districts,” Udaipur superintendent of police Kailash Chandra Bishnoi told TOI.Police have identified most of the agents who were instrumental in taking these children from their homes and getting them employed in Surat. “Cases would be registered against them under relevant sections of Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act. The rescued children would be counselled by CWCs and later on needed steps for their rehabilitation would be taken,” the SP said.The team found 10-15 children crammed in each room with no proper amenities, toilets or beds to sleep. The children mostly boys were allegedly paid amounts ranging from Rs2,000 to Rs5,000 per month, Bhojraj Singh of Asra Vikas Santhan, an NGO, who coordinated the operation, told TOI.