BBA claims child labour employed in Anaj Mandi units: HC seeks Centre, AAP govt reply

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought response of the Centre and AAP government on a PIL alleging that child labourers were employed at the factory at Anaj Mandi here where a fire on December 8 claimed 43 lives, several of them minors.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the Centre, Delhi government, police and state of Bihar seeking their stand on the plea by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA).

BBA, represented by senior advocate H S Phoolka, told the court that of the number of people who have been reported dead, injured as well as missing or trapped in the factory, several are minors.

The NGO, in its plea filed through advocate Prabhsahay Kaur, has sought directions to the authorities to enquire into the number of children who were employed at the factory and to also provide police protection to the kids injured in the Anaj Mandi fire who are admitted in hospitals.

BBA has also sought a direction to the authorities to enquire into the angle of trafficking and child labour and submit their report.

It claimed that it has interacted with relatives of the minors and the children themselves who have been admitted at the hospital with burn injuries and they have stated that they worked at the factory and were caught in the fire.

BBA, in its petition, has also alleged that one of the injured minors has disappeared from the burns ward of LNJP hospital and claimed that it indicates involvement of child traffickers.

It has sought directions to the police to trace the missing child.

It has also claimed that most of the children hail from the state of Bihar from where they are brought here by traffickers to work in the factories.

"The petitioner's representatives found questionable persons at the hospital where the children are admitted, with special interest in the children rescued from the Anaj Mandi fire, who are possibly middlemen/traffickers who had brought the children to Delhi for work from their native villages," the plea has claimed.

It has contended in its plea that the minors are "tutored and coerced" by the traffickers to say they are 19 years old and were only visiting the factory if they are caught by the authorities.

The NGO has also alleged that employment of child labour at the factory was with the knowledge of state authorities who are "attempting to cover it up".

It has also claimed in its plea that child labour was employed not just at the Anaj Mandi factory but all over Delhi, especially in unauthorized colonies where manufacturing units and factories are illegally going on in residential areas under the noses of the state authorities.

Such establishments "are cramped, overcrowded, and lack windows, etc. Children are often made not only to work there but also sleep and eat there and their movement is severely restricted," the petition has said.

It has further said, "These hubs of child labour are hotbeds of trafficking, as also illness, where children are kept like slaves, in addition to being open to disasters such as fire and other accidents as they are unauthorized and without fire clearances."