01 November 2007, New Delhi: In yet another rescue operation on complaint filed and lead by the child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan “BBA” (Save the Childhood Movement), 75 child labourers between the ages 7 and 15 years were rescued from the Khanpur area of South Delhi.

All child labourers rescued were natives of Bihar, namely Araria, Motihari and Sitamarhi districts. Most had been trafficked from their villages and sold into bondage by unscrupulous labour recruiters cum traffickers. Some like Kader, 12-year-old boy from Araria district was shockingly kidnapped 2 months back to be sold as a slave. Kader says his parents would be worried sick about him since for the last 2 months they do not know where he has been. He does not even know the name of the employer for whom he has been working.

Except for a few older boys who got Rs. 50 ($1.25) per week none of the children got any payment. The employers’ rue for not giving the payment for backbreaking labour was that all these boys were trainees or shagirds.

Founder of BBA and Chair, Global March Against Child Labour questioned, “If this is not bonded labour and slavery, what is this? These young children are working for nothing, they have been trafficked and forced to work in inhuman conditions. It is now the responsibility of the administration to find out the final contractors are, establish the supply chain, the organised trafficking chain and book them.”

Shanu, a 10 year old mumbles, “Whenever I tried to stretch my legs or roam around, malik-log (employers) would beat me.” Showing his cut and bruised hands he said, “When we made a mistake while doing the zari work they would hit us on the knuckles.” Shanu has been working in the zari sweatshop for the last 6 months and sold for a mere Rs. 1,300 (less than $ 35) by his poverty stricken and illiterate parents. After BBA activists reassure and tell him about the rehabilitation schemes, he cautiously ventures, “I want to go back home.  I want my parents and others parents to know about the life of misery that I has endured.”

In the labyrinthine lanes, too narrow for cars to pass through, there are dozens of these small embroidery ‘factories’ catering to the domestic as well as global demand for cheap and intricate embroidery. The trafficked children for the growing mass of cheap, illegal, unorganised and contract labour. Many parents have been paid between Rs. 1000 –2000 ($25 - $50) to send their children to learn a trade in the metropolis and send back their wages, but none have seen any money returning home.

The saga of atrocious working conditions in zari sweatshops are repeated in these ‘factories’ as well. The children squat on the floor for the duration of their 12-16-hour shifts in small window-less, ill-lit rooms. Food (watery dal and rice) is served twice a day, dustbins are overflowing with food, filth and scraps of clothe and the stench of the dirty toilets, sweat and fear permeate the area.

On a public interest litigation (PIL) file by the BBA, a bench headed by Delhi High Court Chief Justice M K Sarma, the court expressed its concern that despite repeated issuance of directions, authorities had failed to check child labour in the capital. BBA submitted that the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of the area refused to accept the children as child bonded labourers. The report of the SDM given to the state government said the children were merely ‘neglected children’. All children in the said raid (conducted on 29 October 2007, which lead to the rescue of 14 child labourers) like today were found working on their workstations making intricate embroidery.

Satyarthi said, “The authorities must act to prosecute the employers and the traffickers as well as provide timely rehabilitation to the children and their families.”