NDIA: NGO rescues 115 child labors

JAIPUR: A Rajasthan based NGO, Dakshin Rajasthan Mazdoor Union, has rescued 115 children who were about to be sent to Gujarat to work in cotton factories.

The child laborers were rescued from Udaipur, about 500 km from here by a team of the Dakshin Rajasthan Mazdoor Union, an advocacy group working for migrant laborers.

Most of the children belong to poor tribal families. "These children were rescued by us when they were being sent to cotton factories of Gujarat, especially in Ahmedabad and Disa," Meenakshi Paliwal, an official of the NGO.

According to a study by the union, at least 100,000 children from Rajasthan's tribal belt are employed in the cotton fields of Gujarat. The study said that about 50 percent of the labourers employed in the cotton fields come from four tribal districts of south Rajasthan, Dungarpur, Banswara, Udaipur and Sirohi, which border Gujarat. It also revealed that about 35 percent families send their children for cotton works.

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 bans employment of children below 14 years in specified fields which are considered unsafe and harmful to children.

However, the practice goes on uninhibited across the country.