JOIN USAs many as 25 children working as bonded labourers were rescued from Alipur in north Delhi on Tuesday. Three employers were also arrested and their factories were sealed.
“ An investigation is on, and we found out that several other children in this area are working as child labourers,” said a senior police officer.
The rescue operation was led by a sub-divisional magistrate, police officers, labour department officials and child rights activists from Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
The rescued children were below 15 years, and the youngest one was nine years old. They were trafficked by agents from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and forced to work in rice export factories, where they were made to stitch bags.
They were forced to work for over 10 hours a day, earning a daily income of only Rs 20 to Rs 50. “If we stitched 100 bags a day we would get Rs 100. But I was able to make only Rs 20 a day because I could not make more than 20 bags,” said the nine-year-old child.
The children were produced before the child welfare committee, which directed the NGO to take them to a children home.