By Ahmed Mohiuddin Siddiqui,
Hyderabad, 01 Feb 2015: The Hyderabad Police campaign to rescue child labourers from the old city of Hyderabad continues at a frantic pace as many more children were rescued from areas like Chandrayangutta and Falaknuma on Friday. More than 300 children have been rescued so far. The children who are shifted to care centres are now enjoying their new found life and waiting to be united with their parents.
The citizens of Hyderabad are all praise for the new dynamism of Hyderabad Police, who are sparing no effort to stop the menace of child labour and bring those connected with this exploitation including the mafia to book. Many parents have been contacted so far. The child labourers were living in pathetic conditions with a 14 hour work for their tender hands. They were even exposed to chemicals in some units. Many children were employed in bangle-making, plastic industry and other menial jobs. The salaries paid were a pittance. It was as low as Rs1500 in a majority of the cases.
Some voluntary organizations like the Confederation of Voluntary Organisations (COVA) headed by Mazheruddin has been championing the cause of eradicating child labour, there was a policy paralysis on part of the last Congress government headed by Kiran Kumar Reddy. After the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government took power after formation of the new state of Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is making a visible change to the life of Hyderabadis as far as the crime scene is concerned. Now, the criminals and the mafia have begun to fear and partly respect the law.
Many honest and active policemen and women have been given important responsibilities. Women and children feel safer now. Rama Rajeshwari, IPS has formed SHE teams to control eve teasing and harassment of women. The SHE teams initiative of Cyberabad Police can be replicated all over India especially in the capital Delhi.
Bihari children are among the most trafficked in the country. Every year more than 40,000 children are trafficked from Bihar and end up in many small scale manufacturing units and restaurants doing cleaning jobs. Floods are an annual feature of Bihar. Many parents lose the whereabouts of their children and the children too in the aftermath of the floods. It may be recalled that on 8th September 2014, Ajay Mishra, DIG, Tirhut Range, Bihar had said that 4,000 children are trafficked from Bihar every month. In July 2014, 176 child labourers employed in handicraft units in Jaipur were rescued and brought back to Bihar.
Poverty is a major issue in Bihar, which sometimes force parents to part with their dear ones in the hope of getting some money. But this turns into a nightmare for the little children who lose their childhood to the vagaries of life. One can gauge the efficacy of poverty alleviation programmes in Bihar and the tall claims of respective governments in giving a ‘standard life’ to the people.
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Ahmed Mohiuddin Siddiqui is a senior journalist, political analyst and a columnist for different newspapers. He is widely followed in Asia, Africa and Europe. He can be reached on Twitter @journopolana .
