Krishna District occupies the top position in the field of education, but has also acquired a dubious distinction of being No.1 in child labour cases also. Several glaring facts have come forward in a recent survey conducted by the Labour Department.
The officials rescued as many as 1,807 child labours in Zone-I (i.e. East and West Godavari and Krishna districts) and in Zone-II (in Guntur, Prakasham and Nellore districts) during a special drive conducted from February 16 to March 31.
Of the total, 744 children engaged in works were rescued in Krishna district, which was the highest number in State (up to March 28). Another 14 children, including a few girls, were rescued from hazardous working conditions, said Joint Commissioner of Labour Y. Surya Prasad, who was the in-charge for Zone I and II in the special drive.
Each child has a sad saga and was deprived of parents’ love.
Most of the labours were from broken families, migrated labourers, orphans, abandoned children, bonded labourers engaged by parents or guardians due to poverty.
In many cases, violation of child rights, domestic violence, poor implementation of Right to Education Act was observed.
In some cases, the employers acted cruelly with the children, by detaining and causing burns to children, Krishna District Deputy Commissioner of Labour (DCL) S.Y. Srinivas told The Hindu .
Poor rehabilitation
Officials identified that boys and girls, aged between 10 and 15 years from all over the State and from neighbouring States are working in highly dangerous conditions in Krishna district. Several children were rescued from industries, houses, hotels and construction works, NCLP in-charge Project Director D. Anjaneya Reddy said. The government has appointed several departments, including Revenue, Police, Labour, National Child Labour Project, Education, Juvenile Welfare, Women Development and Child Welfare departments and constituted Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to protect child rights.
But, due to poor coordination between the departments and alleged negligence of the officials the Acts were not implemented properly, and the rescued children were not rehabilitated.
On March 19, a 12-year-old child labour, Gopa Ram of Rajasthan, who was rescued by the officials, died in a road accident in the district.
