Kundapur, Apr 27: ‘At a time when positive discussions are being held at international forums about the desirability of school children undertaking summer jobs, labour officials in Karnataka coast have been resorting to torturing the children who want to work and earn during summer holidays, in the guise of conducting raids against unlawful acts and protecting children from excesses. We propose to approach the court against such officials and their acts,’ said B Damodar Acharya, executive director of a voluntary organization, ‘The Concerned for Working Children (CWC)’.

He was addressing a press conference in the town on Friday April 25, to register his protest and dissent to the action of labour department officials in conducting a raid in the town in association with the local unit of Protection of Children’s Rights in the guise of providing protection to children, and in the bargain, inflicting mental torture on the student concerned and his poverty-ridden mother. 

‘We have formulated laws for protecting the people, not to commit atrocities on them. We should understand that laws are meant to guard people against injustice. We have no other option but to drag the officials to court, as they have been trying to snatch away fundamental rights of the children in the name of legal provisions,’ he warned.

He noted that the boy in question had volunteered to do things that are neither hard for him nor dangerous during summer holidays, in view of the financial problems plaguing his family.  ‘By taking the boy into custody without giving him proper information and explanation, or gathering his opinion during the raid, the officials have violated the provisions of section 13 of chapter 2 in Juvenile Justice Act. This is a heinous crime,’ Acharya noted.

Acharya said that boy had lost his father when in third standard, and his mother had to look after the boy and his two school-going elder sisters by working as coolie. While he appreciated the boy’s mother for continuing to provide education to her daughters in spite of difficulties, he strongly criticized the officials for branding the boy as a child labourer, taking him into custody, and admitting him into rehabilitation centre, duly driven by the illusion of doing something unique, without caring to verify birth certificate and other documents presented by the boy’s aunt as his mother was away on that particular day.

‘If the officials were genuinely concerned about the welfare of the children, they should have conducted the raid when schools are functioning. That is the right time to rehabilitate children deprived of rights of compulsory education. Even in such cases, the children need to be properly educated and informed beforehand,’ he felt. He pointed out that most of the families living in rural belts of the taluk are not financially stable, and by tradition, students get involved with works that are not hard or dangerous for them during holidays. ‘Discussions had been held in this matter when M T Reju was the deputy commissioner of the district, and thereafter, the officials had been instructed not to conduct raids during the months of April and May. The officials have thrown these instructions to winds. There are doubts as to whether these officials have adopted raids as a means of business. We will be filing court case in this connection shortly,’ he explained.