Tag Archive for: Delhi

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Child Labor Continues – Unabatedly and Shamelessly

 From [Newkerala.com] 

New Delhi : Pramod is all of nine. His tender age, however, does not give him the luxury of a carefree and fun-filled life. He and his younger brother toil on the streets of Delhi, selling cigarette and other tobacco products for a living.

“My family is very poor and there is not much scope to earn a decent living in my village in Kanpur,” Pramod told IANS, working in a kiosk in the INA market in south Delhi.

“That’s why I and my brother came to Delhi a year back and we have been selling cigarettes here to earn some money,” he added.

Said his younger brother, who said he was aged eight: “If we had enough money we wouldn’t have come here on our own… Maybe we could have gone to school.”  Read more

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Helpline in Delhi to Combat Child Labor

In a bid to tackle child labour and handle complaints from workers, a toll free helpline would soon be launched by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, a state government official said Tuesday.

The helpline number 12789 will be functional between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., added the official.

“It is being commissioned with an aim to provide a sense of confidence and assurance to workers and make it an effective tool for approaching the authorities in case of denial of the minimum wages by the employers and for enforcement of all labour Laws,” said the official.

It will also function as an instrument to eliminate child labour as the affected children could call on this helpline or someone else may call on their behalf helping the labour department to rescue them, added the official.

According to the official, a senior officer will be deployed at the helpline and reports would be sent to the labour secretary every six hours. A review meeting would be chaired by Labour Minister Ramakant Goswami every fortnight.

“The callers will be intimated about the action taken in a shortest possible time that may not extend beyond four days,” added the official.

Goswami said that wider consultation and preparations have been made before commissioning of the helpline which is going to be the first in the country.

“We have chalked out a comprehensive plan to provide help and required consultation to the labourers in hardship. The department is all set to adopt more humanistic approach and has also decided to closely monitor the enforcement of various labour laws,” said Goswami.

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Moin Paid with his Life for Being Slow at Work

Sahim Salim in New Delhi

Sahim Salim investigates the shocking death of 10-year-old Moin Khan, the latest victim of child labour in the country.

When 10-year-old Moin Khan’s parents sent their child to New Delhi with his maternal uncle, the couple from Madhubani in Bihar would have never known the fate that lay before him.

They didn’t know that Moin’s uncle Kalimullah Khan was taking him away to work 14-hour shifts at his makeshift factory in a single-room rented apartment in northwest Delhi. The tortured 10-year-old paid with his life for being slow on April 16.

His maternal uncle beat him to death. The crime would not have come to light had a cremation caretaker, who noticed Kalimullah’s brother trying to cremate the little boy’s body the following morning, not informed the police. Read more

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26 Child Laborers from Bihar Rescued in Delhi

(PTI) Twenty-six child labourers trafficked from Bihar were rescued and eight employers detained by authorities from south Delhi.

The Delhi Police and the task force against child labour conducted the rescue operation in Jamia Nagar area yesterday, said an official of child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), representatives of which also took part in the raid. Read more