Bahraich, Shrawasti child trafficking hub: Labour dept
Lot of kids being pushed into labour by their parents or some other relatives
Children from Uttar Pradesh districts continue to be trafficked to different areas of the country for domestic work and other forms of labour.
In most cases, poverty is the prime reason behind the inhuman practice, claims a recent study conducted by the labour department in Bahraich and Shrawasti districts.
The study highlights that a lot of children were being pushed into labour by their parents or some other relatives.
“Some of them are even stopped from going to schools and pushed into labour in parts of the country,” says the study.
“Based on reports available with the department, it is clear that both Bahraich and Shrawasti districts are the source districts for child labour and Delhi, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are common destination states for these children,” said Syed Rizwan Ali, coordinator, state resource cell at the office of labour commissioner.
“A list of 258 children from Bahraich rescued from Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Delhi in last three years is available with the department and we have decided to focus our study in the area,” he said.
The team found that around 57% of children surveyed were either enrolled in schools or madarsas before they were trafficked for work. But, almost none of them could read or write.
Children who reported that they were studying in madarsas could not read or write in either Urdu or Arabic.
“The study teams met only a handful of children who could read a sentence in Hindi or could write their name in Hindi, who would possibly have continued to study, if they had not been sent to work,” said Ali.
“As the teams travelled around the district it found that a large number of child labourers were involved in professions such roadside vending, agriculture, working in shops or ferrying loads. It was clear that children were finding work or were undertaking self-employment while adults in the families were claiming that they were not able to find work,” said Ali.
The study highlighted that children above the age of 12 were looked at as an easy source of income by their families.
To justify this, families offered various reasons like adults not getting work under MNREGA or a lack of other employment opportunities.
“The situation is being exploited by middlemen/traffickers in the district who convince parents to send their children for work,” said Ali.
In many cases, it was also found that as soon as the child turns 12 his father stops working and the family responsibilities are passed on to the next generation.
Families of 54% of the children surveyed were residing in their own pucca house, while 37% were staying in kuccha houses and 9% families were residing in slums.
The teams also saw evidence of mobile phones and gas stoves, etc. in some of these houses.