Traffickers are selling children in India foramounts that are often lower than the cost of animals and most of them end upworking as laborers or commercial sex workers, activists said on Tuesday.

"Children are purchased like buffaloes," said Bhuvan Ribhu ofBachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), quoting a study that isdue to be released later this year.

"While buffaloes may cost up to 15,000 rupees ($350), children are soldat prices between 500 and 2,000 rupees ($12 and $45)," he told Reuters.

For instance, two brothers in Bihar wererecently given away for 250 rupees ($6) each by their parents and traffickedout of the state in connivance with police, Ribhu said.

The group estimates that children account for 40 to 50 percent of allvictims of human trafficking. They are sold to work as domestic laborers, or inthe carpet industry, on farms or as commercial sex workers.

The traffickers-police connection was so strong in some parts of the countrythat traffickers scout freely and children rescued from brothels and bondedlabor were often victims again, he said.