Nagpada (Maharashtra), June 15 (ANI): In a joint operation, police and several non-government organisations working against child labour conducted a raid and rescued 108 children from the Nagpada area of Maharashtra after getting a tip-off from a social group.
Police, after acquiring the necessary verification, raided several textile factories where a private contractor had hired minors who were being forced to toil for over 16 to 20 hours in a day under inhumane conditions.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) (Social Service) Vasant Dhoble told reporters that nearly 108 children were rescued from these factories. He said they were found working in abysmal conditions.
"We raided the factory and arrested nearly 25 people including the owner of the factory and rescued 108 children. Out of 108, 100 children are under the age of 14 and the rest are between 14-16 years," said Dhoble.
The police raided nearly 150 textile factories located in Dagad Chawl, Madanpura, and Nagpada areas of Mumbai.
"The children working over here hail from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Nepal and were forced to work. We will investigate what compelled them to work over here," said Dhoble.
There are an estimated 60 million child labourers in India, and many of them are 'hidden workers' working in homes or in the underground economy.
Millions of children in India continue to be driven into labour by poverty, triggering concern and outrage among civil society.
Chief of the rescue operation (Program Head) Navnath Kamble of 'Pratham', a non-governmental organisation, said that the children were compelled to work in extremely hazardous conditions,
"It's a crime to make children work under force and we came to know that the factory owners were not letting them go home after toiling for the whole day at work. We complained to the labour department that nearly 500-600 children were working under pressure and they should be rescued," said Kamble.
Though child labour is illegal in India, children as young as five years of age still work 14-15 hours a day to earn meager wages in extremely hazardous conditions, and without any rights, in India's infamous informal sector.
As per the information provided by Plan India, the Census data on the distribution of working children in the age group of 5-14 years, the issues declined in some states and increased in other provinces.
A law prohibiting employing children in homes and in the hospitality industry came into effect in October 2006. There have only been 1,680 prosecutions and not a single conviction.
Consequently, children working in lower-end restaurants, roadside eateries and highway food joints are a common sight in many parts of India, and many urban middle-class households continue to hire young boys and girls from poor families as domestic helps.
The law-where violators face a jail term of up to two years and a maximum fine of 20,000 rupees is an extension of a previous 1986 ban prohibiting children from working jobs deemed too "hazardous" for minors such as in factories and mines. (ANI)
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