12 children rescued from carpet factory

Bhadohi: The district administration freed 12 children from a carpet-weaving unit in Bhadohi district of West Bengal after it was raided on Saturday.

The District administration and labour department officials conducted the raid jointly.

All the rescued children were shifted to a juvenile home until their families are identified and informed by the authorities.

All the 12 children rescued are minors while most of them are below 14 years of age.According to the sources, they had been working as bonded labourers in the factory unit for several months without being paid anything at all.

A Bihar based contractor who had brought them to Bhadohi sold these children to the factory owner said the officials who carried the raid. While the owner of the unit has been absconding since the raid was done, a case of child exploitation has been registered against him.

Bhadohi is famous for its carpet industry comprising a large number of small and large export units.

A Fact Finding Committee commissioned by the Order of the Supreme Court of India confirmed that a large number of children work as bonded laborers in the carpet industry.

The vast majority come from the poorest part of Bihar, the most impoverished state in India. In the bonded labor system, recruiters give parents a cash advance or "loan."

"The child is often taken far away to weave carpets in order to work off the family debt. The debt is rarely paid off and indebtedness may carry on for generations."

"The child is, in effect, an indentured servant with virtually no rights and no protections.In cases where a bonded child is sent to work with a family, his treatment is significantly worse than the other non-bonded children" said the officials.