Child labour and trafficking in India
The coronavirus pandemic has drastically affected not only lives of adults but also of children, especially from vulnerable communities. Not only they are missing their schools but being pushed into child trafficking, child marriages and child labour. Mitigating decades of efforts to eradicate these evils, the pandemic is showing devastating social outcomes across the world.
India has always been among the most vulnerable countries in terms of condition of children. The coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures taken to contain it have forced the migrant labourers to return to their villages. In such a situation, traffickers are arranging low-cost labour for the organizations by persuading children to work in hazardous workshops and factories.
Children rescued from child labour
The Delhi police Railway unit has rescued 14 children allegedly trafficked from many parts of Bihar to Delhi. Police arrested 10 people in the case, said officials. In compliance with protocols, police sent the rescued children, aged between 12 and 14 years, for a quarantine centre in Lajpat Nagar of south Delhi, officials added. On intimation of an NGO, Police launched the operation at Delhi station.
The NGO informed the police about 14 children heading towards Delhi by Mahananda Express Train from various districts of Bihar. The joint operation by police, NGOs and RPF personnel, saw close monitoring of the movement of passengers through CCTV cameras to check any suspicious movement at the Old Delhi Railway Station.
Police said, it arrested ten accused individuals on charges of human trafficking, on the basis of statements of children. The accused confessed that the children belong to different districts of Bihar, during the police interrogation, the official said. The rescued children were produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) through video conferencing.
Labour shortage triggered child trafficking
Among 14 rescued children, nine belong to Katihar, two are from Begusarai, two from Kishanganj and one from Purnia. The accused had plans to take the children to different places – four to Azadpur in Delhi and two to Seelampur in Delhi, two to Faridabad in Haryana and six to Punjab. In view of current labour crisis, the children from poor families fell prey to traffickers, who take them to work, said the police.
In another case earlier this week, police rescued 21 minor children from Samastipur of Bihar, at Maidan area of Kolkata. The children, in the age group of 12 to 14 years allegedly being trafficked, were being taken to Howrah to get employed in factories. Most of the children were under impression that they were going to Kolkata for a picnic, but a few told the police that they were going for employment.
Police detained three men, in their 20s, accompanying the children. And it filed a case of human trafficking and criminal conspiracy against them. Police sent the children to the CWC, and they will go home only if the committee becomes satisfied by their families’ explanation on why they sent children with these men. Otherwise they will stay at government homes, said officers.
Child trafficking across India
A few months back, reports came from Mumbai where 75 children were rescued from child labour and trafficking, and handed over to Children’s Home in Dongri. They were waiting for reuniting with their families during lockdown. The children belonged to Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal. The traffickers took the children with them to Mumbai by persuading them with job prospects.
The families had reported of children, aged between 12 and 17, about either missing or run away from their homes. The Children Home officials helped them talk to their families over phone. A few families had managed to reach the Mumbai children home to receive their children during Covid lockdown. According to CWC officials, states were not ready to take children back due to pandemic.
Reports of child trafficking and child labour are coming from across the country. As the families from vulnerable areas have lost livelihoods during lockdown, they are pushing their children into trafficking and labour. Traffickers are capitalizing on the opportunity of labour shortage in the big cities. The closure of schools for a long time has also increased vulnerabilities of poor children. A solid action plan must come out from government and authorities at the soonest.
