JOIN USA total of 37 children, who were found making bindis and wedding cards in two factories in North East Delhi, were rescued by an NGO on Wednesday.
The children, as young as ten, were involved in bindi making in a unit in the narrow lanes of Usmanpur and wedding cards in a unit in Pushta in the capital’s North East area.
In one unit, the children were using large sheet cutters and printers with chemical inks to make the cards and in the other they were adding glitter and colour to bindis of all shapes and sizes.
Most of the children rescued by Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA) NGO had been trafficked from various districts in Bihar by the local village men in a few cases and relatives in the others. Some of these minors had been working in this unit for more than a year, with little or no money being paid for their labour.
According to information by the NGO, the children used to sit, eat, and sleep in the same room and were tutored that if someone comes and takes them they will be sent to jail. The elder ones used to get a small amount like Rs 100 once in two weeks or more than that and the minors didn’t get any money at all.
This comes a day after the Rajya Sabha passed the Child Labour Bill (CLPRA) which restricts the employment of children below 14 years in all occupations and enterprises, except those run by his or her own family. Several NGOs and activists have said that the amendments do not protect children from the menace of child labour.
“The new act is based on the premise that education and work for children can go hand in hand,” said NGO Child Rights and You (CRY).
The children have been produced before the Dilshad Garden Child Welfare Committee and they will now be taken to the BBA’s rehabilitation centre Mukti Ashram in Burari.
“Hundreds of children in the age group of 14-18 are employed in abusive and unhealthy circumstances like these.
If the amendments to the CLPRA as passed by the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday are also cleared by the Lok Sabha, these children will not be rescued because bindi making is not considered hazardous. In this way, the children will continue to be exploited legally,” said RS Chaurasia, Chairperson, BBA.BBA activists were accompanied by the local police, labour officials and civil defense personnels under the leadership of the SDM Seelampur.
The BBA team will facilitate in receipt of their back wages and release certificates, along with completion of other legal formalities. FIRs will be lodged against the owners under relevant sections of the law.