Raids on hazardous industries lead to release of six child labourers in Tiruchi
Staff Reporter (Saturday, Jun 18, 2005 )

* Education, Labour departments involved in the drive to declare Tiruchi district child labour-free

TIRUCHI: : A series of raids on hazardous industries in and around Tiruchi in the past fortnight have led to the release of six child labourers.

A special squad comprising officials from various departments including Education, Labour and Revenue besides the National Child Labour Project-sponsored Child Labour Elimination and Effective Rehabilitation Society (CHEERS) conducted the raids on various industrial units including modern rice mills, aluminium and stainless steel workshops, brick-kiln units and automobile industry in Crawford, Sangilandapuram, Ariyamangalam and Lalgudi.

The Labour Department, in its bid to abolish the evil of child labour by the end of this year, observed the `child labour abolition enforcement month' last month, when 10 children were rescued from the evil clutches of labour.

Encouraged by the success of the drive, the Collector, K. Nanda Kishore, advised the officials to continue the surprise raids for some more time to relieve more children from the clutches of hazardous industries. It has been planned to declare Tiruchi a child labour-free district by the end of this year.

"Many children toil in small industries such as modern rice mills and automobile units", points out the Inspector of Labour, Tiruchi, M. Solaimuthu, who led the raids at various units in the district.

He said legal action would be initiated against the owners of the industrial units under Sec.3 of the Child Labour (Abolition and Regulation) Act.

Mr. Solaimuthu said that preliminary enquiry with the affected children revealed that they were attached to the industries only for a few weeks or months. "But, the actual period of their employment would be known only during the course of subsequent and detailed enquiry", he said.

Mr. Solairaj pointed out that proposals had been sent to the State Government to declare Pudukottai and Perambalur child labour-free districts, based on the statistics received from the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) authorities. Approval from the State Government was being awaited, he added.

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