National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) member Justice D Murugesan said that the field officers in Jharkhand were not appropriately aware of the provisions of laws related to child labour, bonded labour and trafficking as were expected from them.
The NHRC member, during an interaction with DCs, SPs and SDMs during a workshop on Bonded labour, Child labour and Human Trafficking at Judicial Academy here, also advised them to go through enactments and schemes of the Central and the State Government so that they could be implemented in an effective way.
“Today we had an interaction with the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police, and Sub-Divisional Magistrates of various districts of the State…..My impression is that they were not aware of the provisions of the laws related to child and bonded labour and trafficking as we expect them to be,” said Justice Murugesan. “We have advised them to first go through all the enactments and various schemes of the State and Central Government and implement them, he added.
“My assessment is that they were not aware of the various provisions of law in full….which is the only reason why they were not being properly implemented here,” said the NHRC member. That is why the system of bonded labour, child labour and trafficking still persists here in Jharkhand, he added.
Earlier, Justice Murugesan had an intensive interactive session with the administrative and police officials of the State Government during the workshop where he also enlightened the officials by answering queries raised by the officials. He also asked questions from the officials and also explained what precautions must be taken while going on raids
for the recovery of bonded and child labours.
“To check them, it is imperative to implement the provisions in an effective way,” he said.
Justice Murugesan further said that the Government should not only free the bonded labours after identifying them but also provide employment opportunities to them. The NHRC member also expressed concern over the accused persons in the cases related to bonded and child labour not getting held guilty in the court of law due to lack of evidences against them and asked DCs to ensure that evidences must be collected well so that the accused persons could be put behind bars.
“Bonded labour itself puts a negative impact on the psyche of victim’s children….it is also a violation of their education, health and other constitutional rights,” he said. Competent officials of the State Government must ensure that the victims of child and bonded labours recovered from other States do not get pressurised and a situation does not arise that they were forced to go back to it," he added.
Calling child and bonded labour as a blot on the society, Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma while addressing the gathering said that the State Government was committed towards eradicating child and bonded labour from the society. She also added that this evil could only be removed from the society by joint efforts made with public participation.
The workshop was also attended by NHRC Joint Secretary Dr Ranjeet Singh, Principal Secretary of labour Department SKG Rahate, Principal Secretary of Social Welfare Department MS Bhatia, IG (CID) Sampat Meena along with the SPs and DCs of Ranchi, Khunti, Giridih, latehar and Koderma.