18 children working as bonded labourers freed

LUDHIANA: In a shocking incident, as many 18 children were rescued by the district administration on Saturday on a tip off from non-government organization, Bachpan Bachao Aandolan, which got to know that kids were being exploited and compelled to work as bounded labourers in the city.Notably, all these children, who either belong to WestBengal or Bihar— in the age group of 10 to 12 years — were beingpaid Rs 25 to Rs 100 per week. Now, the administration is ready to take actionas per the Child Labour Act.Mohammad Gullamuddin, a 12-year-oldlabourer said, “Life is definitely tough here. I am working here from lastnine months and they give me Rs 100 per week. My parents are in Bihar and haveno regular source of income.I send them all the money I earn so that they canlead a decent life.”Talking about the malpractice prevalent inthe state, especially the district, Bachpan Bachao Aandolan national coordinatorRakesh Sharma said, “We received the information that in the districtchildren were being kept as bounded labour and they were highly underpaid at Rs25-100 per week. These children were brought from Bihar andJarkhand.”“From the past one year, we have beeninvestigating the matter and we found out that nearly 3,000 children are workinghere in various factories and are being exploited at various level,” hesaid. Notably, the members of NGO had submitted this information todistrict administration and asked for their support. They had written to thedeputy commissioner on March 25, and they were told to come on a weekend. Aslast Saturday, authorities were busy with the Kabaddi World Cup, thisorganization members reached here this morning, but nobody came up for theirhelp.The NGO members accused administration of being indifferent anddeputy commissioner expressed his helplessness saying that all the policepersonnel are on special duty at grids of Punjab State Electricity Board.Talking about this, Sharma said, “We had been waiting sincemorning, but the authorities kept on telling us that they do not have force, andeven asked us to reveal the names of factories where these children wereworking, but we wanted to rescue the children first. We wanted theadministration should come along with us to bring the children back. Had theoperation started earlier we could have managed to rescue many morechildren.”DC Rahul Tiwari said, “These people hadapproached me and I had told them to plan the raid some time in weekend as it isdifficult to spare manpower during the week and I was not aware that they werecoming today. I gave the charge to SDM and as per the information policepersonnel who were to accompany them in plain clothes were not available as theentire police personnel are on special duties on grids of Punjab stateelectricity Board but still we managed to spare 10 cops.” He said,“So far we have not decided anything but we would take action as per thechild labour act.”