New Delhi, 28th December 2006.
When he saw his 10 year old sons Triloki Baitha and Dharmendra, Shambhu Baitha started sobbing. He met his children after two long years. 50 children including Dharmendra and Triloki were rescued from 3 zari units in Subhash Vihar, East Delhi on 27th December 2006 in a raid conducted by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), Labour Department, local administration and police. The children are from East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Motihari, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur and Samstipur districts of Bihar and a few are from Nepal. Most of them are young children with the youngest child Noor Hasan being 8 years old.
Parents Triloki Baitha, Dharmendra Baitha, Upendra Baitha, Bhola Shaha, Sanoj Majhi, and Dashrath Majhi approached BBA about 10 days ago with the request to help rescue their children. Two years ago, a middleman name Seth had lured them to send their children with him on the pretext that he would get them work besides educating them in Delhi. He also promised to give them money for the same. After Seth brought the children to Delhi, neither did the parents get any money nor could they contact the children. When they came to Delhi to meet him and take their children back with them, he did not let them meet their children. Instead, he asked them to pay a sum of Rs. 25,000 in lieu of their food and living expenses that he claimed he had spent on them. In yesterday's raid, except Dashrath Majhi's son, all other complainant's children along with others were rescued. There is no trace of Sanoj Majhi, Dashrath's son.
11 year old Ashraf said that they would work from 8 AM to 12 in the midnight. He got Rs. 20 as a weekly allowance. The working conditions are pathetic. 15-20 children work in small, cramped, badly ventilated rooms. And at night, they would sleep in the same place. The older boys had the additional task of cooking food. They were beaten for the slightest of mistakes. It was common for them to be hurt by the needles used for zari embroidery, for which they received no medical attention.
During the raid, 9 year old Akbar was found to be running a high temperature and shivering from cold. When asked, he said that he wasn't well for the past 4 days and that the employer was only giving him tea saying that the cold would pass. Akbar had been working for the past 6 months and he was desperate to go home.
The children would be given release certificates under the Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 1976 today (28th Decmeber 2006) by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Seelampur, Shri L.R.Meena. Besides, the labour department would take action against the employers under the Child Labour (Regulation and Prohibition) Act, 1986.
The Chairperson of BBA, Shri Kailash Satyarthi who led the raid and rescue operation said that the children's rehabilitation process was initiated before the raid was conducted. Their release was ensured under the Bonded labour abolition Act, 1976 so that they would benefit from obtaining a release certificate. This would ensure that the children would get a rehabilitation package of Rs 20,000, house as per the Indira Awas Yojana and the benefit of other Government schemes on priority basis. They can obtain these from the district officials from their respective places. In addition, they would get a pension of Rs 300. The Bihar team of BBA has already been notified about the rescued children so that they can follow-up the rehabilitation process from there.
Shri Satyarthi said that an FIR has been filed against the employers Sikander Hayat Khan, Mohammed Anwar-Ul, Mohammed Gulam Ghosh in Bhajanpura police station. The SDM of Seelampur L.R.Meena, Assistant Labour Commissioner Shri S.C.Yadav, Labour officers Gurmukh Singh and V.K.Rao, the General Secretary of BBA, Shri R.S.Chaurasia
, Consultant lawyer Advocate Anand Kumar, coordinators Rakesh Senger, Rajeev Bharadwaj and activists Rakesh Sharma, Sunil Trivedi, Sukhdev etc were those among present during the rescue operation.
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