Mumbai Authorities Launch Anti-child Labor Operations
June 12, 05
Mumbai has seen a second operation in less than a week against jewelry companies exploiting child labor. On Saturday, police, the state Labour Welfare Department and several non-government organizations rescued around 80 children working in jewelry manufacturing units in the Kalvadevi and Zaveri Bazaar areas during a raid.
The children rescued during Saturday’s raid were reportedly under the age of 14.
On Wednesday, authorities returned home around 35 children who were among 446 children rescued from various factories in the city. Some of the children were from as far away as Kolkata.
A government official said the children were exploited and abused, made to work from early morning to late at night for wages of just Rs 50 ($1.20) a week while living in grossly overcrowded rooms. Meanwhile, some of the children who worked as trainees were not paid at all.
India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has been at pains to deny that child labor is widespread in the country’s vast diamond polishing and jewelry making industry.
In December, GJEPC Chairman Bakul Mehta rejected claims that child labor was widespread in the industry, claiming it was down to just 0.31 percent of the industry’s workforce after the International Labor Organization alleged in a report that child labor constituted nearly 3 percent of the diamond workforce in India.