Hyderabad: Delhi-based recruitment agencies are responsible for bringing many child labourers into the city and employing them as domestic helps.
The children were brought from states like Bihar and Jharkhand. All this came to light after the labour department officials and the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights members rescued four kids from Prashasan Colony, under Raidurgam police station limits, on Saturday.
Following a tip-off, the commission had got in touch with Dr Ashok, the Telangana commissioner of labour. Dr Ashok then deputed a team under a deputy commissioner to search the houses.
“During the raids, we found out that Delhi-based agencies had recruited the children. It all seems very organised,” said deputy commissioner of labour S. Naresh Kumar.
One of the rescued children, an 11-year-old girl, had injuries on her wrists. She was allegedly tied up by the house owner. The officials suspect that all the children are aged between 11 and 16.
The agencies named Vaishnavi Placement Service and Ranchi Jharkhand Placement Service, located in Nangli Rajapur, Nizamuddin East in New Delhi, had recruited the children.
The resumes of the children were prepared and the agency forged their ages in order to prove that they were not minors.
However, the labour department officials said the ages mentioned were incorrect.
The agency would approach poor families and pay the children’s parents some advance. The salaries are not fixed and children are forced to work for a specific period. “This is a kind of bonded labour,” a commission member said.
Officials say that there are many child labourers trapped in houses located at posh localities. However, conducting raids in such neighbourhoods is difficult. “This raid was based on a specific alert. The commission is looking into the possibilities of more raids. We will also join the raids if we get the inputs,” said the deputy commissioner of Labour.
Meanwhile, the members of the commission said that BJP MLA Chinthala Ramachandra Reddy, who lives in the colony, tried to block the raid and even threatened the officials. "The MLA said we will face consequences for conducting the raid,” said Achyuta Rao, member of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
However, the MLA refuted the allegations, “I am the president of this housing society, so I wanted to know what was happening. I support the initiative to rescue child labourers,” he said.
The children have been sent to rescue homes.
