New Delhi: The Delhi Police and the DCPCR have seen an increase in cases of child labour during the COVID-19 pandemic which along with the lockdown has severely hit the income of families, giving an opportunity for traffickers to target the poor and persuade them to send their children to work, officials said on Sunday.
Both the Delhi Police and the Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) have jointly rescued several children during this time, they said. Officials of DCPCR said with the outbreak of COVID-19 and ensuing lockdown, there has been a drastic impact on the income of families and the traffickers have been targeting poor families in various states, including Bihar, persuading them to send their children on the pretext of giving employment. The child rights panel said it has been working to curb such cases through a multi-stakeholder approach, coordinating with all the stakeholders, including Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs), Mandi Associations, Private Schools Associations among others in Delhi.
The Commission is concerned about increasing number of cases during the pandemic, said an official. Even the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has predicted that with COVID-19 pandemic, the world may witness an increase in child labour for the first time in 20 years, thus, there is a risk of reverting years of progress in this arena, he added. In the second week of July, the DCPCR along with the police rescued 12 child labourers from Gandhi Nagar in east Delhi. The children were found in a garment factory and cycle-motorcycle mechanic shops and they were not wearing masks and working in unsafe and unhygienic conditions, the panel had earlier said. A few days later, the DCPCR rescued five child labourers from Okhla, who were working at a bike service centre and eateries respectively. In the same month, another rescue operation was conducted by the body along with the police, in which nine child labourers, who were working in various scrap shops in Mustafabad were rescued.
In September, 14 children allegedly trafficked from different districts of Bihar to Delhi were rescued and 10 people were arrested by the Railway unit of Delhi Police. Among those rescued, nine children were from Katihar, two from Begusarai, two from Kishanganj and one from Purnia.
The accused had planned to take them to different places, including four to Azadpur and two to Seelampur in Delhi, two to Faridabad in Haryana and six to Punjab, Harendra Kumar Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railways) had said. Due to the shortage of labourers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the traffickers saw an opportunity to get the children employed in factories and targeted poor families in Bihar, the DCP had said. (PTI)
