By Imran Khan, IANS
Patna : Chandan Kumar, 11, and Guddu Kumar, 12, sweat profusely as their nimble fingers work on. They are busy packing relief material for flood victims.
They are among five child labourers engaged by the Bihar authorities for packing relief material that is air-dropped in flood-hit areas. Their work starts at the break of dawn and continues till late at night.
Collecting relief material, putting them in packets, stitching them and loading them on trucks are all in the day’s work for these children.
But the children, employed by the state’s civil supplies department, are oblivious to the fact that employing child labourers is banned under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.
“I have been working for nearly 12 hours a day since last week. My job is to collect relief material, pack and load it on the truck,” Chandan told IANS.
His friend Guddu, dressed in tattered clothes, said it is hard work for long hours. “We get tired after working for long hours. We have to work since early in the morning till late at night,” he said.
Rakesh Kumar, another child labourer, said he hardly gets time to rest.
“There is a huge stock of relief material to be packed before it is air-dropped,” Rakesh said.
Two other child labourers assist in stitching cotton bags for packing relief material.
Most of these child labourers work under the nose of senior government officials. Patna District Magistrate B. Rajendra, who is the nodal officer, visited the relief packing centres twice but found nothing wrong.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who made a surprise visit to the centre Thursday, failed to notice the child labourers working there.
“These child labourers were supplied by a contractor to work at the flood relief packing centre,” a marketing officer of the civil supplies department said.
Indian law prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14. Anyone found guilty under the act can face up to two years’ jail and a maximum fine of Rs.20,000 or both.