Child rights activists have demanded that monitoring at major stations on the Patna-Mumbai route be beefed up to check child trafficking. On the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour on Sunday, officials of the Mumbai-based NGO, Pratham, which has been working against child labour for years and has been carrying out its activities in Bihar in collaboration with the State government, said vigilance only on the exit and entry points wasn’t enough.
Pratham is in talks with the RPF and the railway authorities to tighten vigil at various stations. “There are six major stations between Patna and Mumbai, and a strong vigil is needed on the route. They said traffickers now know the stations where there is a vigil, and board the train, say two stations ahead,” said Kishor Bhamre, director, Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children. He said if there is heavy monitoring at Kurla and Kalyan, traffickers get off with the children at Igatpuri and travel to Mumbai by road.
Mr. Bhamre said the other sectors that need strict vigilance are Patna-Secunderabad, Patna-Surat, Lucknow-Mumbai, Gaya-Delhi and Gaya-Secunderabad. “We have presence at Jaipur, Secunderabad and Kurla stations. In between all these stations, the RPF and the GRP should be monitoring trains to check trafficking of children for work.”
Other experts said there is a need to sensitise industries against the use of child workers. “There is child labour at garment factories, dhabas , stone quarries and construction sites. All of us have a role to play in this. Besides using labels like ‘Made in India’, it is very important that industries use the label: ‘Not made by child labour’,” said Asha Bajpai, professor of law at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, who is also the author of Child Rights in India .
She said joint inspections by labour inspectors and the civil society must be made to rescue child workers and monitor the implementation of anti-child labour laws.
Experts said
there is a need
to sensitise industries against the use of child workers
