The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : 9 Tiruvannamalai children rescued, agent held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 29, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

9 Tiruvannamalai children rescued, agent held

By K. Manikandan

The children, who were rescued at the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus on Sunday. — Photo: N. Balaji

CHENNAI, NOV. 28. The Indian Council of Child Welfare (ICCW) today rescued nine children belonging to Tiruvannamalai from an agent when he was taking them for employment in a bangle-making unit in Mumbai.

The ICCW volunteers got a call at 2 a.m. from a constable of the Koyambedu station that the agent had been detained at the station. The children were rescued at the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus

They found out that the children were to be taken to Mumbai by the Dadar Express, leaving Chennai at 6.50 a.m. The volunteers brought the children to the ICCW office at Shenoy Nagar.

The police said one of the constables noticed the children and Charles alighting from a government bus from Tiruvannamalai. As it would not have been proper to take the children to the police station, they rang up Child Line (1098).

M. Manivannan (15) said all the children belonged to Pakkam. Some of them had dropped out of school and were employed in a bangle-making unit, while some others had left their village for the first time for employment. Manivannan said he went home for Deepavali and to hand over to his parents some money, which he earned over one year. His parents were poor farmers. A man approached his parents with the offer of a job for their son in Mumbai. "My parents agreed," Manivannan said.

The other boys rescued are his brother M. Rajkumar (10), K. Arjunan (16), S. Viji (16), G. Nagaraj (15), S. Manikandan (15), A. Silmbarasan (14), his brother A. Anbarasu (12), and V. Gopi (11).

Long working hours

The children said they were paid Rs. 45 per `haajar,' (eight hours) and they worked for 13 hours a day. At the end of the month, the factory owner deducted from the wages money for providing them meals.

"We want to go back home and study," Nagaraj said, but wondered if their parents could afford it. The volunteers said several children were being taken from Tamil Nadu to different parts for employment in hazardous units.

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