Banti, 12 is engaged in cleaning utensils at a local dhaba near Shivmurti in Haridwar. From 6 in the morning to 9 at night, he is busy washing utensils and tea glasses whole day while what he gets in return is just peanuts and abuses.
The array of dhabas that line the main Moti bazar have children employed for washing utensils. Visit any road side motor garage or two wheeler service centre which are mushrooming in the area around Bhagat Singh chownk, Ranipur Mode and you would hit a teenager in dirty greasy pants.
little hands working on the cleaning of motor parts and fixing nuts and screws that abound these open stretches of land always have a story to tell. The plight of these lesser children of God is not unknown to the public and officials but apathy of local authorities is encouraging the child labour, all the more say the observers. Pioneer explores the issue on child labour’s day.
Eliminating child labour remains a challenge because administrative authorities do not keep track of the situation of the local children, says a psychological counselor at district mela hospital Namrata Mishra.
Narrating her own experience while counselling these children, Namrata Mishra says, “Few days ago a girl Chandani dressed in boy’s outfit was brought to us for medical checkup. She was recovered by police from Haridwar railway station.When I intrigued her, she told me that she was beaten by her employer, a dhaba owner in Moradabad and had run away from there. She was sent to Nari Niketan in Dehradun which itself is so much crowded in controversies over human trafficking.”
Many kids like this Chandani run away from their homes and take up menial jobs in roadside dhabas, hotels, motor mechanic workshops. The inadequate space in the rehabilitation centre is the prime reason for not rehabilitating the child labourers so they are sent to Dehradun. On an average the mela hospital encounters 8 to 10 cases every month of run-away children who take to holy city doing menial jobs for earning two square meals.
What is more! There is no data available with the assistant labour commissioner of the district on date as to how many children are engaged in labour. There is no staff to conduct the survey and the children continue to be exploited in the hands of their empoloyers while their place is in schools.
Speaking to The Pioneer, assistant labour commissioner of Haridwar Ashok Bajpei said, “Our labour enforcement officers go on regular inspection. We had raided luxor area in March –April month and rescued 12 children. The action against their employers is on. They have been asked to give clarification and matter is being pursued in CJM court.”
When quizzed about how many such children have been earmarked as child labourers and why no action was taken on child labourers near Bhagat Singh chowk, Bajpei said, “We have very limited staff and even the labour officer is on leave. As such the infrastructure of the labour office is not so sound and this scarcity of staff hampers the functioning of the department.”