10 October 2007, New Delhi: 4 year old Vikas (name changed)  tender hands and feet are swathed in blood every single day as he is made to clean glass bottles and the debris of broken glass and that too barefoot.  While cleaning, his hands would repeatedly get nasty cuts because of the shards of glass as he had to handle broken glass bottles while cleaning as well. This situation was not exclusive to Vikas only but was the condition of 11 others with him who were employed in a factory in the Mukandpur area of Delhi where these children in the age group 4 – 12 years were made to clean glass bottles.

The 12 children working in bonded conditions in this factory were rescued in a raid conducted by Labour Department with assistance from BBA activists Shri Rakesh Sharma and Shri Sukhdev Dikshit.

Among the rescued was 6 year old Rahul Kumar (Name Changed) whose feet were found to be bleeding when the activists raided the factory. The shards of broken glass were scattered all over the floor, it was difficult to walk with shoes as the sharp glass pieces were tearing the shoe sole it was poignant  to just see children walking barefoot.

10 year old Rinku told the activists that the child received an appalling amount of Rs.6/- for cleaning one sack of bottles where every sack included about 100 bottles. He elaborated that the children with great difficulty manage to clean about 3 to 4 sacks everyday which fetches them a meager amount of Rs.24 to 30/- only, on a daily basis.

The cases of these children were filed under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 and the custody of the children was given to their parents by the Labour Department officials without even taking the children to the local Police Station and filing an FIR against the employers. The children were sent off with their parents who were local residents of the area and the parents were notified as to not send their children to work. Medical aid was not provided by the Labour Department officials to the children and neither was a Medical Check up done. Also, the employers have not yet been fined.

One wonders how authorities can be so callous and insensitive while taking decisions regarding the welfare of our country’s future generations.