The Delhi High Court sought the responses of the
city government and police on Thursday on a plea moved by an NGO, alleging that
its members were attacked while they were carrying out a raid to rescue child
labourers from industrial units.
The NGO, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), said a team
comprising its members, members of its partner NGO and government officials
were carrying out a rescue operation for child labourers when they were
brutally attacked by a mob, leading to injuries to many of them.
It said all the rescued children, except one, were
snatched by the mob allegedly at the behest of traffickers.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and
Justice Subramonium Prasad issued a notice on the application and asked the
authorities concerned to respond to it within four weeks.
The court has listed the matter for further hearing
on August 4.
The high court, which had earlier directed that
minors found working in industrial units be rescued and rehabilitated, had
observed that children who ought to have been studying in schools were forced
to work at these unhygienic and inhabitable places where accidents were waiting
to happen.
The court was hearing an application filed by the
NGO, seeking directions to the authorities for immediate action in the matter,
including placing the alleged offenders under arrest and tracing out the 20-25
children forcibly snatched away from the rescue team by the mob.
The NGO's application, filed through advocate
Prabhsahay Kaur, has also sought directions to the authorities to plan a
large-scale operation in the Agar Nagar and Mubarakpur dhaba areas of Delhi
with an adequate police force and rescue the child labourers working there.
The plea was filed by the NGO in the aftermath of a
fire tragedy that killed more than 40 people, including several minors, at a
factory in the Anaj Mandi area here in December 2019.
The NGO has also sought a direction to the
authorities to inquire into the angle of trafficking and child labour.
In its fresh application, the NGO has said the
children were found cramped in small, unventilated places, they were dehydrated
and malnourished and were carrying out cutting work with blades, scissors and
machines for sewing purses and belts.
"The worst part of the attack has been on a
female member ... representative of the petitioner's partner NGO, Bal Vikas
Dhara, who was sexually assaulted and molested. The unruly mob consisting of
men gave calls to tear her clothes and parade her. It tore off her clothes as well
as injured her. She tried to escape by hiding in a nearby shop, but was dragged
out. In addition, a civil defence volunteer was also injured," the plea
said.
It added that the members of the raiding team
somehow managed to save their lives.
The court was informed in March that more than 200
children working as labourers here were rescued by the government since January
and further raids were underway.
The high court, in its January 11 order, said it was
"extremely disturbing" that the government was taking a lackadaisical
approach and showing insensitivity in the case of the fire incident that
resulted in the deaths of 45 people, including 12 children aged between 12 and
18 years.
The Delhi Police, in its status report dated January
10, had informed that of the 45 victims, nine were minors -- the youngest being
12 years old -- and six children had suffered injuries.
The petitioner moved the court alleging that the
child labourers were employed at the factory where the fire broke out on
December 8, 2019.
It has also claimed in its plea that child labourers
are employed all over Delhi under the noses of the state authorities and sought
directions to the authorities to carry out a time-bound, comprehensive survey
of child and bonded labour in the national capital as also rescue operations in
the pending complaints regarding the employment of children.
The NGO has sought directions to the authorities
concerned to "rehabilitate, compensate and recover minimum wages of the
child labourers at the Anaj Mandi establishments" and seal the
establishments, units or factories where child labourers are found employed.