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Child labour tumbles out of closets after blasts

The multiple bomb blasts in the city last Wednesday have exposed the prevalence of child labour at the Opera House and Zaveri Bazaar areas.

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The multiple bomb blasts in the city last Wednesday have exposed the prevalence of child labour at the Opera House and Zaveri Bazaar areas.

One of those injured in the blasts is Indrajit Tiwari, a 16-year-old boy who was brought from his hometown of Basti in Bihar on the promise of a joy ride in the city of dreams but was instead employed at a kachori stall.

Sitting up in his bed in GT hospital’s ward 11, he quietly munches on an orange. His father Sarvan Kumar has been called from Uttar Pradesh to take the boy back. Indrajit, who was injured in the Zaveri Bazaar blast, had come with his neighbour, Shivprasad Verma, a month ago to “roam around Mumbai”.

“Verma, however, used the boy to help him run a kachori stall at Zaveri Bazaar. There was no one even sitting with the boy at the hospital on the day of the blast. We told the owner of the stall to have someone sitting with him at all times,” says Navnath Kamble, head of NGO Pratham’s rescue programme.

He says the NGO is looking for similar cases in other hospitals — like that of Dinesh Majhi, 13. “We want to ensure the children get compensation and their employers do not exploit them. We will see what action can be taken against the employers.”

Indrajit, who has sustained injuries on his hand and leg but is stable, says that he studied up to Std VIII and had come to Mumbai for a vacation. His father was shocked to know that his son was made to work. “Indrajit’s holidays were going on. Verma asked me to send him for a trip. I wanted him to have a darshan of Mumbadevi,” says his father, a farmer.

A bubbly child, Indrajit says he cannot wait to get back home. “I want to go home to my mother,” he says, smiling widely, promising that he will continue his studies. Recounting the day of the blast, he adds: “I was eating kachori at the time of the blast. I was taken to hospital by a group of people.”

Verma, however, defends the child labour charge, saying: “Indrajit would just help me bring the vessels from the room. I had not employed him.”

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