In one of the biggest anti-child labour operations conducted jointly between various agencies and organisations this year, 108 children were rescued from a chain of small-scale factories in Madanpura on Thursday.
According to police sources, the raid was conducted in the Dagad chawl in Madanpura on seven to eight small-scale units, in collaboration with non-government organisation (NGO) activists and labour officers.
“For some time now, we have been working on information about a large scale child labour racket in the chawl, and on Thursday, 165 of our men, accompanied by 10 labour officers and 60 NGO workers swooped down on the area. A total of 108 children have been rescued in the raid,” said B.G. Shekhar, deputy commissioner of police, enforcement.
Mr Shekhar added that 25 men have been arrested for employing the children, and have been charged under various sections of the Juvenile Justice Act, Child Labour Act and the Indian Penal Code.
The police is now working on rehabilitating, and wherever possible, speedily reuniting the children with their parents. The children are mostly aged between seven and 14 years, with only eight of them being in the age group of 14 to 18 years. They belong to various states in India and the police suspects that some might even be illegal immigrants from Nepal and Bangladesh, from where children are regularly smuggled across the border and sold as cheap labour in Mumbai. However, this is being verified.
“We are sending the children to juvenile rehabilitation centres in Mankhurd and Malad where they will be lodged till their families are traced. Inquiries are also being made into the antecedents of the accused to check if they have been involved in similar offences in the past,” Mr Shekhar added.