Child labourers rescued from textile markets

SURAT: Ten child labourers were rescued by the task force of the labour department from two textile markets located on city’s Ring Road on Wednesday. Official sources said the child laboures were rescued from the textile shops, where they were employed for organizing and packing sarees in boxes. All the rescued children hail from Rajasthan and are below 14 years of age.
Official sources said the labour department’s task force personnel led by assistant labour commissioner, Ashish Gandhi were on the routine survey operation in the textile market on Wednesday.During the operation, the task force team found child labourers from New T.T market and the Shiv Shakti textile market on Ring Road.
The child workers were made to sit on the floor, beside the saree stacks and boxes and that they were organsing and packing the sarees in the boxes. A few children were found from the basement of the Shiv Shakti market. “The child labourers were caught during the routine operation by the department. Due to frequent raids in the textile markets, the contractors and traders have had shifted their illegal activity of employing child labours to the residential societies in the surrounding areas. The contractors take the residential houses on rent for running the packaging unit employing the child labours” said assistant labour commissioner, Ashish Gandhi.
Gandhi added, “We have noticed around 25 per cent reduction in the textile markets employing child labourers. It is difficult to find children in the new markets, but they are found in the old markets” Around six textile shop owners have been booked and will be prosecuted under the shop and establishment act. According to Gandhi, the child labourers have been sent to the observation home at Katargam and that they will be sent to their hometowns soon.