Tender hands that toil for bread…

Hyderabad: While the authorities are making tall claims of Hyderabad being a world-class city, on the other side of the Musi river, in the dingy bylines of the old city, hundreds of children from various States are toiling day in and day out to make bangles of different sizes, shapes and patterns that bedazzle thronging visitors and tourists in the bangles shops that dot the periphery of historic Charminar.

In fact, the old city of Hyderabad seems to have become a centre for child labourers with hundreds of them being employed in factories making bangles for years.

These units located at Kattedan, Talabkatta, Chandrayangutta and Babanagar areas employ children aged below 14 years, making them toil as bonded labourers and subject them to various types of harassment and torture.

Poor families are offering their children to brokers for taking up hard jobs for their sustenance, notwithstanding the deplorable conditions under which several hundreds of them from Bihar and UP are made to work in utter exploitation of their poverty.

Brokers encourage these families to send their children by promising higher wages. But only Rs 1,500 is paid to them for virtually working throughout the day.

According to an investigation by the Hyderabad police, the brokers pocket a major part of the wages of children brought from other States. It is alleged that hundreds of these boys are forced to work one room without food.

The hard labour put in by the children while working in a bangle factory, which uses dangerous chemicals, was exposed during the cordon and search drive taken up by the police on January 27, 2015.

As many as 220 kids were liberated following the operation and Pahelwans Younus and Imran were arrested for forcing them to work as bonded labourers. Even after this police operation, children continue to work in some companies.

With more boy labourers getting caught, the police are continuing their searches in the old city as part of their ‘Operation Smile’ and ‘Operation Musqan’.

They have so far this year liberated 106 children from bonding, after arresting 64 persons and registering 45 cases.

The police, with Swathi Lakra as DCP (Crimes) have issued a stern warning that stringent action would be taken against those who were forcing children to work as bonded labour.

They are acting tough against those employing young boys even while requesting that they be sent to schools, without being forced to work in subhuman conditions.

The police are dispatching the freed child labourers by trains from Secunderabad station to their native States.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Zone, Satyanarayana has warned that the Preventive Detention Act would be invoked against the employers if they are found engaging children.

He told The Hans India that more cordon and search operations would be conducted to detect and check child labour.