NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court sought the government and police response 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, 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 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 in December 2019.
