Law Set-aside, Child Labourers Toil At SMC Fair

Law Set-aside, Child Labourers Toil At SMC Fair 24 Jan 2009, 2312 hrs IST, Yagnesh Mehta, TNN Text: SURAT: It was an irony of sorts at Surat Municipal Corporation- organised Vidya-Suman-IT (book, horticulture and information technology) fairs here on Saturday. While hundreds of children were participating in drawing competition, there were some others working at stalls at the same venue. They were spotted by two rescued child labourers who questioned their employers. But, employers in the horticulture section were least bothered. "I was looking at plants and flowers in the horticulture section when I spotted a boy younger than me. On closer watch, I spotted a few more. I brought this to my teacher's notice," said Sharda Rathod, 13, a rescued child labour at Pratham, an NGO working for child education. Similarly, Arti Patel, 13, also found a few children working there and informed her teacher. "When stall owners were contacted, some asked the children to leave the place and hide. Others were not bothered and children continued with their work," said Visha Pradhan, project officer, Pratham. Later, TOI contacted Tanmay, 11 and Hitesh, 10, who were employed by different nursery owners. While Tanmay was employed at Kolkata Nursery owned by Kolkata-based Surjit Das, Hitesh was employed at Bilimora Nursery owned by Arvind Patel. Both the employers who were unaware about prohibition on employing children said they are not worried about any action. SMC had on January 18 organised a convention on child rights in association with Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP). SMC commissioner S Aparna had spoken on child rights at the convention. Aparna and deputy commissioner special PJ Zala were unavailable for comments.

"Loved reading this piece by AEJAZ AHMED?
Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!"

Join our Telegram group

Join our Whatsapp group