India’s rescued child workers at risk

MUMBAI: India’s strategy for rescuing and reintegrating child victims of labour trafficking is marred by poor coordination, a lack of accountability and inadequate resources that can leave children at risk of further harm, Harvard researchers say.

There must be a comprehensive, sustained effort to address these issues, rather than the current short-term approach to return children to the same circumstances that led to their trafficking in the first place, the researchers said in a report released this week.

"Their families need structured and ongoing support to mitigate the risk that a child will be re-trafficked for economic reasons," said the report from Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights.

The International Labour Organisation estimates there are 5.7 million child workers in India aged five to 17.More than half work in agriculture, and at least a quarter are in manufacturing, embroidering clothes, weaving carpets, making matchsticks or rolling beedi cigarettes.

Many help their parents in brick kilns or mines, work in shops, restaurants and hotels, and toil as help in middle-class homes.

In rescuing child workers, there is an over-reliance on charities and activists to provide intelligence and conduct the raids, with local police and government officials are rarely involved in the planning, the Harvard study said.

The study was conducted in eastern Bihar state, where many child workers come from, the transit city of New Delhi, and the destination state of Rajasthan in the northwest.

Rescue raids are poorly planned and executed, and beset by inadequate resources and communication, while criminal prosecution against offending employers is rarely pursued, it said.