Child labour: HC slams govt

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that restoration of child labourers with their families will serve no purpose as the child will be sent back to work. “It is a big drama going on in this country,” Justice Bilal Nazki said.

Taking a stock of the rescue and rehabilitation of child labourers all over Maharashtra, judges asked how many children have been rescued this year. Additional public prosecutor Aruna Kamath-Pai told the court that that 5,575 children were rescued across the state this year of which 4,347 were relocated to their parents’ homes and only 64 remained in rehabilitation homes in the state of which 14 are in Mumbai.

Nazki, however, said that the entire process of rescuing these children was a “useless exercise” if they went back to their parents who were the ones who sent them to work. Saying that the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act is just a publicity gimmick, Nazki said, “This law is only for publicity, it serves no other purpose. We are convinced now.”

Last year, the Maharashtra government has filed an affidavit stating that the state will get rid of child labour by 2010. However, Nazki explained, “The parents are sending these children to work because they have nothing to eat. The child will work at some tea stall and earn Rs10-20 a day and help his father get Rs300-400 a month. We feel 90% of these children who go back to their parents go back to labour.”

The court was hearing a suo-motu PIL when it asked, “Have you any mechanism to follow up and make sure the child has not returned to labour?” The judges said that if the government made sure that the child went to school or bore his or her educational expenses then its measures would be worth consideration.

Chairman of the child welfare committee (CWC) Dr Shailaja Mharte who was present in court said that this is a “vicious circle”. “If you have no mechanism then say that there is a defect in the system,” said a peeved Nazki. He asked if any of the case of rehabilitated children were followed up by either the CWC or NGOs. “We are in contact with some rehabilitated children but not all,” Mhatre told the court.

Nazki and Justice AR Joshi then asked the CWC to submit a list of all the children whose cases it has followed up after rehabilitation and adjourned the case till July 27.