The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Child labour employers warned of 1-year jail

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Thursday, Dec 04, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Child labour employers warned of 1-year jail

Special Correspondent

‘Zero tolerance while dealing with violators’

Hyderabad: The district administration has decided to crack the whip real hard on child labour employers. Hereafter they will have to shell down not just a heavy fine but cool their heels behind bars for a minimum of one year.

There will be ‘zero tolerance’ when it comes to dealing with the violators. “Enough time has been given for creating awareness and we will be no longer soft on those who employ children,” said Hyderabad Collector, Navin Mittal.

He was speaking at the child labour open court organised here on Wednesday to hear cases booked against employers.

A total of 85 cases were heard and penalty of Rs. 17 lakh imposed against the employers at the rate of Rs. 20,000 each.

A week’s time is given for payment of fine. However, nine employers paid the fine amount straightaway. Joint Commissioner, Labour. B. Ajay, was present on the occasion.

Mr. Mittal warned the erring employers against pressurising the parents of the child labour to cough up the penalty amount.

If this was detected they would be booked under Bonded Labour Act and prosecuted.

When caught many employers argued that the children engaged by them were above 15 years. But the ‘burden of proof’ was on them. They have to come up with documentary proof about the age of the children. Age certificates issued by doctors would not be valid.

Only registered birth certificates or ration cards would be accepted.

If anyone wanted to contest about age, government was prepared to approach a regular criminal court, the Collector said.

The drive against child labour had been stepped up. In January 217 children were rescued, February 186, March 191, April 328, June 896, July 1090, August 1062 and September 769.

It was proposed to utilise the premises of government schools after they close for the day to run Residential Bridge Courses for the rescued child labour.

There were 4200 children in the RBCs now. An amount of Rs. 10,000 was incurred on each child per annum.

The NGOs who run these RBCs were finding the rental support quite inadequate, the Collector said.

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