Indian child slavery - in pictures

Tea workers in Assam picking leaves on a plantation. Illegally low wages on Assam's tea estates mean parents cannot afford to look after their children and their daughters are easy prey for traffickers who lure them to Delhi with promises of a new life, then sell them as domestic slaves
Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Arjun Tati, 55, and Mukti Tati, 50, with a picture of their daughter Binita Tati. She was trafficked to Delhi from Laluk, Lakhimpur district, Assam, at the age of 14. Her distraught parents have not seen her for three years Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Kusma Takri, 27, child trafficker in Laluk, in Lakhimpur district, Assam. She was taken to Delhi to work as a servant for a notorious child trafficker and later agreed to provide him with girls from her home village. She is paid 4,000 rupees per girl Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Rabina Khatun, 18, in her home on a tea estate in Laluk, Lakhimpur district, Assam. She was trafficked to Delhi at the age of 14 and was later gang raped. She has given written permission for her name and photograph to be published to expose the trade Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Rakesh Senger, senior member of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which rescued 1,400 children in 2013 alone
Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Saphira Khatun whose daughter Minu Begum was trafficked to Delhi from Laluk, Assam, at the age of 12. Her sisters Munu, 20, and Nadira, 17, say they have not seen her since Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Tea pickers at an estate in Assam, north east India, can be paid as little as £1 a day
Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Sheropeina Barala, 50, outside her home in Laluk, Assam. Her daughter Rupali Barala was trafficked to Delhi at the age of 13 Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

A new railway line connects the remote Lakhimpur district in Assam with the rest of India. It will make the movement of people from the region considerably easier Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Elaina Kujar, 20, in her home in Laluk, Lakhimpur district, Assam.
She was trafficked to Delhi at the age of 14 and was raped by her employer Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Shivani Kujar, 22, and sister Elaina, 20, at home. The girls were trafficked to Delhi in 2007 Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Shobaha Tirki, 50, child trafficker, also known as Vijay Tulci, is a former tea worker who was paid just 500 rupees a month. He now gets 10,000 rupees for every girl he sells from Laluk Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Sub-inspector Nirmal Biswas, officer in charge of Laluk police station, Lakhimpur district, Assam. He admits police will struggle to cope with the volume of trafficking from the region until the core issue of poverty is tackled by government Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Sukur Muni, 45, mother of Julika Tanti, with her son Arjun Munda, 32 Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain

Women on the books of a maid placement agency raided by police in Delhi in connection with the trafficking of young girls from Assam. Photographs supplied by Laluk police station, Assam
Photograph: Handout

One of three men arrested in connection with the trafficking of girls from Assam to Delhi. Photographs supplied by Laluk police station, Lakhimpur district, Assam Photograph: Handout

Young girls on an Assam tea estate. The girls are the daughters of tea pickers. Within a few years, they will be the subject of attention from child traffickers Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Rabina Khatun, 18. She was trafficked to Delhi at the age of 14 and was later gang raped
Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Ramesh Tanti, father of Somila Tanti, 18, who was trafficked to Delhi from the Nahorani tea estate three years ago to work as a domestic slave. He is speaking to her on the phone on the way to rescue her, trying to establish the address of the house where she is being held Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain

Somila Tanti at the moment of her discovery by police and rescuers from Indian child protection group BBA in the house where she was being kept in domestic slavery Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer

Somila Tanti is reunited with her father Ramesh, who travelled to Delhi to try to rescue her three years after she went missing from their home on the Nahorani tea estate Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain for the Observer