Delhi’s shame: 50,000 child workers & counting

Appalled at government’s poor effort of rescuing and rehabilitating child labour, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Delhi government to reveal all details related to rescued children so that “at least independent bodies like NGOs can help them”.

“The manner in which state agencies are monitoring the rescue and rehabilitation of child labourers is extremely deplorable. Poor verification procedures render ineffective any efforts to rehabilitate the child. It is not possible to ascertain whether such children have been handed over to their parents or whether any education or other benefits have been availed by them,” a three member bench of the information commissioners Annapurna Dixit, Deepak Sandhu and Shailesh Gandhi held in their order.

As per Delhi government’s records, around 600 children were rescued from child labour in 2010.  Different independent organisations and NGOs working on the issue estimates that around 50,000 children are still working as child labour across the national capital. 

CIC felt that such disclosure would also lead to a check on malpractices. It directed the Delhi government to provide monitoring details of every child rescued.