13 child labourers rescued from shoe factories

On anti-child Labour Day, 13 child labourers working in shoe factories were rescued in a raid in west Delhi’s Nihal Vihar area. The raid was carried out by an NGO with the help of Delhi Police.

On anti-child Labour Day, 13 child labourers working in shoe factories were rescued in a raid in west Delhi’s Nihal Vihar area. The raid was carried out by an NGO with the help of Delhi Police.

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On the complaint by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a joint team of Delhi Police and Delhi government rescued these children from six different companies and arrested their employers.

All the rescued boys were aged between nine and 15 years. Most of them were trafficked from Bihar and West Bengal. “I was brought here by a local trafficker. He had promised my mother a good salary for me once I became a master craftsman. Till then, I was told that I would have to stay in Delhi and learn the work,” said 12-year-old Vishal (name changed), who was employed in one of the shoe factories for seven months. He used to receive only Rs 400 a month.

The total number of rescued children in the Capital in the past one week alone now stands at 108. But the enforcement figure for child labour continues to remain abysmal. On Tuesday too, 58 children were rescued from different factories in Delhi.